Mancini mauls Inter after Atalanta stalemate

Inter travelled to Bergamo desperate to make amends for a shock 1-0 loss to Sassuolo last week that allowed Napoli to go two points clear of the chasing pack.

But despite deploying Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic either side of Argentinian striker Mauro Icardi in a promising three-man attack, Inter were frustrated for long periods and wasteful on their few real chances of the game.

Slovenian international Handanovic stole the show with a string of fine saves to keep Atalanta at bay in a chaotic stalemate in which Jeison Murillo and Rafael Toloi scored own goals before the half-hour.

Inter's fourth draw of the campaign moved them up one place to second to sit one point behind Napoli, who host Sassuolo in Saturday's late game. Juventus are now third, two points off the pace, ahead of their trip to Udinese on Sunday.

Mancini said: "We've dropped points, and that means we've missed the chance to go top.

"It was a difficult game and we came close to risking defeat. We have to improve our attacking game and keep things simple. There's no need for us to try and get fancy. We're making far too many mistakes in the final third of the pitch."

In an improved second half, Icardi and Jovetic were at fault after missing respective chances and Mancini suggested the pair were lacking synergy.

"By nature, strikers have to be greedy. But it doesn't matter who scores the goals as long as we score."

Handanovic signed a new, improved three-year contract extension recently and the Slovenian was by far Inter's star player.

At the start of the second half he notably fingertipped Toloi's header out from under the crossbar and wowed fans again when he somehow got his trailing leg to block Luca Cigarini's mid-air effort from yards out.

"He did really well to block Cigarini by coming out to close down the angle," said Mancini, although Atalanta coach Edy Reja was even more impressed.

"I don't know how he managed to keep out Cigarini's shot," said Reja.

Napoli can stretch their lead over Inter to four points with a win at home to Sassuolo on later Saturday, while champions Juventus will go two clear of Mancini's men with a win at Udinese on Sunday.

Mancini, 51, said Inter will need to show more if they are to keep their title dream alive.

"We made a lot of mistakes. In fact, in our last few games our mistakes have proven valuable to our opponents," he said.

"I'm sure that soon our defence will go back to playing as well as they did in our opening games, but we really have to do better up front."