DaLveN @CSBD Posted October 3, 2019 Posted October 3, 2019 Serie A leaders Inter Milan suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday evening, before the big confrontation with the visiting champions Juventus on Sunday evening in the seventh stage of the league. Inter took the lead through Laotaro Martinez, but Luis Suarez responded with two goals for Barcelona, leaving the Catalans 2-2. "We were hurt by this defeat," said Inter coach Antonio Conte. "We can't be happy just because we played well, but we have to be angry because we lost." The Juventus encounter will be of extraordinary meaning to Conte, especially as he has won five Serie A titles and a Champions League title as a player before being crowned three times as coach. "For many of our players this is the first season in the Champions League, but that should be the first step in our development, we have to keep working hard," Conte said. Inter have one point from their first two Champions League games but are in stark contrast to Serie A, winning all six games so far, leading the standings with 18 points, two ahead of runners-up Juventus. Juventus, meanwhile, convincingly beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday night, sharing four points at the top of their group with Atletico Madrid. Gonzalo Higuain scored the first goal for Juventus and then made the second for Federico Bernardeschi and then Cristiano Ronaldo scored the third goal. Juventus have also shown a strong defense and managed to keep clean sheets for the second game in a row. "We are very happy with the performance of the team," Higuain said. "We want to continue to progress in the Champions League, that's how we should always appear." Atalanta and Napoli, who finished third and fourth respectively, have not had a career in Europe like Juventus. Atalanta suffered their second successive Champions League loss and fell 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk, while Napoli drew 0-0 at Genk after a 2-0 win over Liverpool. Atalanta face promoted Lecce on Sunday, while Napoli face Torino and Fiorentina also face Udinese on the same day. The seventh stage of the Serie A kick off on Friday with Brescia's match with Sassuolo. On Saturday, Spal will meet Parma, Verona against Sampdoria and Genoa with Milan. On Sunday, Fiorentina face Udinese, Bologna, Lazio and Roma meet Cagliari. Dpa.
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