MILAN (AP) Inter Milan lost at Fiorentina 5-4 in one of the most incredible Serie A matches of the season on Saturday and left its European hopes hanging by a thread.
Inter led 2-1 at halftime, Fiorentina led 5-2 after 79 minutes, Inter scored its fourth in stoppage time and watched its equalizer attempt cleared off the goal-line.
Just over a month ago, Inter was hoping to sneak into the Champions League after a 7-1 victory over Atalanta but two points from five matches has seen it slip to seventh, two points behind AC Milan, which occupies the last qualifying position for the Europa League.
Milan hosts Empoli on Sunday.
โWe have to understand why what happened happened,โ Inter coach Stefano Pioli said. โWhat we saw in the second half canโt be my team โฆ we played for only 45 minutes. Then there was an inexplicable blackout.
โSince the Atalanta match we havenโt had the right mental attitude. We are Inter and we canโt play like this. Weโve reached the bottom. โฆ We canโt throw away matches like we did in the second half today. Unfortunately this month weโve thrown away everything we built.โ
Fiorentina, which also missed a penalty, moved to within one point of Inter, which hosts third-placed Napoli next weekend.
Matias Vecino broke the deadlock for Fiorentina early but Inter appeared to swiftly turn the match around with two goals in five minutes.
First, Ivan Perisic slotted home Antonio Candrevaโs low cross, then Mauro Icardi fired Joao Marioโs through ball across into the bottom left corner.
Fiorentina should have equalized after halftime when it was awarded a soft penalty after Danilo DโAmbrosio was adjudged to have pulled back Khouma Babacar, but Federico Bernardeschiโs weak spot kick saved by Samir Handanovic.
Davide Astori headed in the equalizer shortly after the hour mark, and Vecino again gave Fiorentina the lead two minutes later with his second of the match.
Babacar appeared to seal matters for Fiorentina with two strikes into the bottom right corner in the 70th and 79th minutes to make it 5-2.
But Inter wasnโt finished.
Icardi controlled Perisicโs pass in the area and fired in off the post two minutes from time, and headed in a corner in stoppage time to complete a hat trick.
Inter threw everyone forward and almost leveled from another corner which came out to Marcelo Brozovic, whose effort was cleared off the line by Astori.
