Nicola Sansone scored a late winner as Inter Milan relinquished their grasp on the Scudetto on Wednesday, failing to return to the Serie A summit after a 2-1 defeat at Bologna.

AC Milan regained the top spot in the league with a late victory at Lazio on Sunday, and Inter Milan needed a good response.

And in their game in hand at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, Ivan Perisic struck after just three minutes. Marko Arnautovic restored parity against his former side 25 minutes later, though.

Sansone profited from an Ionut Radu mistake with nine minutes remaining to seal an unlikely victory.

Defeat left Inter Milan two points behind leaders AC Milan with four games left to play as the neighbours battle for the title.

Perisic blasted Inter Milan into an early lead in expert fashion, nutmegging Musa Barrow before powering a left-footed thunderbolt into the top-right corner.

A stinging drive from Federico Dimarco tested Lukasz Skorupski before Lautaro Martinez wastefully fired over a presentable rebound to double the lead.

Arnautovic then levelled things up by heading Barrow’s left-wing cross into the bottom-right corner, while Denzel Dumfries spurned a headed chance from Perisic’s centre at the other end.

Dimarco blazed over after the interval and twice tamely found Skorupski’s hands unmarked from the edge of the area before the Bologna goalkeeper denied Milan Skriniar’s goal-bound header.

Inzaghi sent on forwards Edin Dzeko and Alexis Sanchez in search of a late winner, but it was starting striker Martinez who headed over Hakan Calhanoglu’s corner-kick.

Radu then handed Bologna victory as he missed a simple Perisic pass backwards, with Sansone converting a simple tap in to punish the Inter Milan goalkeeper.

Reigning champions Inter Milan were unbeaten in 15 previous visits to Bologna in Serie A and dominated once more.

But they were punished for failing to make their dominance pay against Miroslav Tanjga’s side. Inter Milan will look to respond in their title charge when they visit Udinese on Sunday, while Bologna travel to Roma on the same day.

(dpa/NAN)