Remarkably, the visitors almost took the lead twice inside the opening three minutes. An excellent long-range free-kick from Federico Dimarco forced Juan Musso into an excellent save to parry the ball away from danger, before on the very next attack, an intelligent run down the left flank from Dimarco put him in a great position, but his driven effort was steered narrowly wide of the target.
After soaking up the early pressure, it was the hosts that secured an early breakthrough in dramatic fashion. Julian Alvarez’s close-range strike was initially ruled out by the referee due to an apparent handball from Alex Baena in the build-up, only for the decision to be overturned after a lengthy VAR review.
The goal appeared to knock Inter off their stride for the remainder of the first half, although Cristian Chivu’s side came close to an equaliser shortly before the interval when a shot from Dimarco drifted wide.
The Nerazzurri were inches away from netting an outstanding equaliser only 35 seconds into the second half, when Nicolo Barella produced a beautiful first touch to bring Alessandro Bastoni’s long ball down inside the box, but his looped effort over the goalkeeper came back off the bar.
Inter’s intense pressure soon told, though, as the Serie A side deservedly levelled the game in the 54th minute. A perfectly weighted pass from Ange-Yoan Bonny set up Piotr Zielinski to calmly place the ball into the bottom corner for his first UCL goal of the season.
An enthralling game in an electric atmosphere continued as the Rojiblancos came within a whisker of regaining the lead shortly before the hour mark, when Giuliano Simeone’s close-range volley was fired over the bar.
In the latter stages, with both sides still battling it out for a winner in a hard-fought encounter, substitute Antoine Griezmann turned round his marker brilliantly only for his shot to be superbly kept out by Yann Sommer.
The contest looked to be heading for a draw, but in the third minute of stoppage time, Diego Simeone’s side dealt Inter a knockout blow thanks to Giménez’s bullet header from a corner, which sent the crowd wild.
That secured a victory that lifts Atleti up to 12th and keeps up their perfect home record in this season’s UCL. Meanwhile, Inter’s defeat sees Chivu’s side drop to fourth place, with a home tie against Liverpool next on their European menu.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jose Maria Gimenez (Atletico Madrid)