KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Inter Milan’s attack again flailed in Europe as the Italian champion was held to a 0-0 draw at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Inter rattled the crossbar with Nicolò Barella and forced two sensational late saves but failed to find the back of the net for the second successive match in the competition.
It has 20 goals in six Serie A matches this season.
Inter and Shakhtar remained at the foot of Group D, two points behind Real Madrid and five behind surprise leader Sheriff. The Moldovan team sensationally won 2-1 at Real Madrid.
“We were guilty of not making the most of our chances,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “We hit the bar and their goalkeeper have two top saves. We had five clear-cut chances on an evening that wasn’t brilliant. We could’ve won.”
Both Inter and Shakhtar had lost their opener and had yet to score in this season’s competition.
Shakhtar’s problems deepened when it lost top scorer Lassina Traoré to a knee injury after just 11 minutes following a collision with Inter defender Denzel Dumfries.
Inter almost took the lead shortly after, but Barella’s long-range effort crashed off the crossbar.
Both sides had chances and Inter defender Milan Škriniar had to make two decisive interventions to prevent the Ukrainian squad from breaking the deadlock.
Inter was under pressure, but the Italian team had the better chances in the second half.
Indeed, it could have won it late but veteran Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov did brilliantly with the 37-year-old first denying Joaquín Correa’s curling effort before parrying Stefan De Vrij’s header moments later.
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