体坛英语新闻：Inter held by Chievo

MILAN, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Inter were held to a 1-1 draw at home on Monday by Chievo in a game where Inter head coach Walter Mazzarri accused the visitors of negative play.

Yuto Nagatomo canceled out Alberto Paloschi's eighth-minute opener, and the Japanese defender then looked to have given the hosts a 2-1 lead in the 14th minute.

However, the referee disallowed the goal for a dubious offside.

Mazzarri did not blame the referee, but was unhappy with Chievo's attitude.

"We know that to play good football it takes two teams, but Chievo came here to defend and hope for a mistake to hit us on the counter-attack," he said.

"I could not have asked for more from my team. We knew Chievo were organized in defence and physically strong, but we had scored to go 2-1 up and had a great chance with Rodrigo Palacio," he said.

His Chievo counterpart Eugenio Corini hit back at the accusation.

"If not allowing your opponents to have a shot on goal is a bad thing, then I'll take that. We have to make the most of our strengths and our resources," he said.

"I understand the home fans jeered because they expected more, but every point is precious for us," he said.

Inter have now won just one of their last seven Serie A games and are fifth in the table, 10 points adrift of third-placed Napoli in the last Champions League qualifying spot.

Udinese's woes continued as they lost to Sampdoria 3-0 at the Luigi Ferraris in a game that saw three men sent off.

The hosts went ahead in the 16th minute through an Eder penalty, and when the visitors' Brazilian midfielder Allan was dismissed for a second yellow card 10 minutes before the break their chances looked bleak.

Eder added a second two minutes into the second half to put Sampdoria in total control, but Udinese were given a lifeline just after the hour when Roberto Soriano was dismissed for the hosts.

However, in the 69th minute Francesco Guidolin's side were dealt a further blow when they were reduced to nine men following Gabriel Silva's sending off, the first time three players have been sent off for two yellow cards in the Italian top flight since October 1997.

Sampdoria put their numerical advantage to good use as they dominated the remainder of the game and added a late third thanks to Daniele Gastaldello as Udinese suffered a third consecutive league defeat.