Inter rattled the crossbar with Nicolò Barella and forced two sensational late saves with Tucu Correa and Stefan de Vrij, but were held 0-0 away to Roberto De Zerbi’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
Champions League Liveblog: Shakhtar-Inter, Milan-Atletico Madrid
Both sides lost their openers in the group, so this was a crucial head-to-head with ex-Sassuolo coach Roberto De Zerbi’s Ukrainians. Stefano Sensi was still injured, with Joaquin Correa and Arturo Vidal not at 100 per cent, but Denzel Dumfries, Federico Dimarco and Matias Vecino stepped in. Shakhtar missed Junior Moraes, Fernando and Dentinho, with goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin still recovering.
Inter had to make changes to their away kit, removing the snake motif due to UEFA regulations.
Manor Solomon drilled inches wide of the near post in the opening minutes, but Shakhtar suffered a heavy blow when losing their top scorer Lassina Traoré to what looked like a very nasty knee sprain during an accidental collision with Dumfries.
Nicolò Barella saw his viciously dipping long-range shot crack against the crossbar after 15 minutes, but Alan Patrick had a shot charged down and Tete turned the rebound wide.
Pedrinho blasted over, but Edin Dzeko should’ve done better when prodding over from a couple of yards on a Federico Dimarco corner.
Milan Skriniar had to make a decisive interception on the counter, but out-did himself with a simply sensational block when Dodo rolled across from six yards, beat Samir Handanovic and Dumfries, but the centre-back hooked a leg around Pedrinho and somehow managed to prevent the tap-in.
Inter were increasingly pinned back in the second half, so Hakan Calhanoglu and Joaquin Correa were introduced.
Lautaro Martinez fired over after a poor Pyatov pass was intercepted, while Dodo blasted over when he should’ve passed to Tete.
However, after being under so much pressure, Inter had two huge opportunities in the final minutes. Veteran Pyatov first flew to fingertip a Tucu Correa curler around the far post, then on the resulting corner palmed a Stefan de Vrij header off the line.
Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Inter