Title hopes falter after draw with AC Milan

ATALANTA’S Serie A title challenge all but faded away yesterday after they were held to a 1-1 draw at AC Milan, leaving them five points adrift of leaders Juventus.

Second-placed Atalanta moved up to 75 points with two games left to play, while Juventus can win the Scudetto for the ninth successive season if they beat Sampdoria at home on Sunday. Juve also have a game in hand.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini, who was serving a onematch touchline ban after being sent off during Tuesday’s 1-0 win against Bologna, watched from the stands as his side fell behind to a moment of genius from Hakan Calhanoglu.

The Turkish winger sent a vicious dipping free kick sailing over keeper Pierluigi Gollini, who got his fingertips to it but could not keep the ball out in the 14th minute.

Atalanta earned the chance to equalise when the video assistant referee (VAR) ruled that Ante Rebic had stamped on Ruslan Malinovsky, but the Ukrainian struck his spot kick at a perfect height for Gianluigi Donnarumma to save.

The visitors levelled through Duvan Zapata, who out-muscled Davide Calabria to slot it home in the 34th minute, but despite that being their 96th league goal of the season, there was little sign of their usual firepower.

Instead, it was Milan who came closest to getting a winner as substitute Giacomo Bonaventura struck the foot of the left-hand post with a second-half shot that bounced off Gollini and almost ended up in the net.

As the clock ticked up towards 90 minutes, Milan had a late shout for a penalty when striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic appeared to be bundled to the ground, but the referee waved away their appeals.

“It is not easy to win these games, they are very balanced. In this heat and after all these consecutive games ... fatigue took over a bit,” Gasperini told reporters.

Picture: REUTERS MANCHESTER, England - Ollie Pope scored an unbeaten 91 and Jos Buttler contributed a half century as England took advantage of a tired West Indies attack to move to 258 for four yesterday when bad light brought play to a premature end on the opening day of the final test. West Indies had kept a tight rein on their hosts through the first two sessions at Old Trafford but leaked runs after tea to hand England the upper hand in the decisive test. Pope offered one catching chance and survived two reviews as he played a positive innings to enhance his growing reputation. He was nine runs short of his test century when he took the offer of bad light. Buttler, whose place in the team is under threat after a poor run with the bat, played a supporting role in the unbroken 136-run partnership. He took 104 balls to reach his half century and was 56 not out at the close. Rory Burns also contributed 57 runs before being caught at first slip by an instinctive grab from slip fielder Rakheem Cornwall, one of the highlights of the day for the West Indies. West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and put his bowlers back to work at the start of their third test in a matter of 16 days. It looked the right decision after Dom Sibley went without scoring in the first over of the day and England’s danger men Joe Root and Ben Stokes made negligible contributions. Root was run out for 17 and Stokes bowled for 20 by Kemar Roach, the pick of the bowlers who ended the day with figures of 2-56 off 18.4 overs. Stokes looked uncomfortable at the crease as he struggled with a quadriceps strain, picked up during his second test heroics, and was cleverly set up by Roach, who after two bouncers produced a perfect in-swinging delivery to strike down the stumps. REUTERS England’s Jos Buttler in action.