Inter stunned at home by Udinese in early setback

Inter Milan slumped to a shock 2-1 home defeat to Udinese on Sunday to lose early ground on Serie A leaders Napoli and rivals Juventus, who won 1-0 at Genoa thanks to Dusan Vlahovic.

Cristian Chivu's team trail by three points the champions, Juve, Roma and promoted Cremonese who all have two wins from their opening two fixtures of the new season.

"We started well but we weren't fluid. We didn't make the right plays and we struggled to create," said Chivu to DAZN.

Inter looked on their way to a thumping victory in the 18th minute when Denzel Dumfries ended a confused passage of play by tapping into an empty net.

However, Dumfries was then at fault for handling in the area, giving Keinan Davis a chance to score from the penalty spot in the 29th minute which he did not waste.

And France's Arthur Atta stunned the San Siro five minutes before half-time with a beautiful curling strike, his first in Serie A, which would give Udinese a win few would have predicted prior to kick-off.

Federico Dimarco was denied a thumping leveller shortly after half-time when Marcus Thuram was caught offside and after that the hosts huffed and puffed to little effect against Udinese's resilient defence, even with four strikers on the pitch.

"The first thing that went against us was the penalty and we lost our heads a bit from that point on," added Chivu.

"We were better in the second half, there was more desire, determination and better quality play, but we couldn't take advantage of the chances we had nor create any more."

Next weekend Inter travel to face their fiercest rivals Juve, who squeezed past Genoa with Vlahovic netting for the second time in as many games after being taken off the transfer list.