MILAN: A late goal from substitute Marko Arnautovic gave Inter Milan a 1-0 home victory after a tough battle with Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.

The Austria striker, who had replaced the injured Marcus Thuram at halftime, squeezed the ball home after Lautaro Martinez`s shot was saved by goalkeeper Jan Oblak with 11 minutes left at the San Siro.

The 34-year-old turned jeers into deafening cheers with his goal, which came after a series of missed opportunities left home fans wondering whether Inter would get the win their performance deserved.

His worst miss came just after the hour mark when he ballooned over a sitter, a dreadful finish which came before and after failed attempts to latch on to promising balls.

`It is certainly one of the most important goals of my career,` said Arnautovic to Sky Sport. `In recent weeks I`ve missed a lot of chances.

But the fans and the players showed they are behind me...

It gave me the energy I needed to score the goal.

Arnautovic has had a hard time since returning to Inter on loan from Bologna last summer and those misses further frustrated supporters.

However, thanks to him Simone Inzaghi`s side, who are nine points clear at the top of Serie A, take a slender lead toMadrid where they will face Atletico in the decisive second leg on March 13.

`It`s very satisfying. The lads were wonderful against a physical, technical side that did not make it at all easy, Inter manager Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia. `We know this is only the first leg, the second match will be tough, and certainly there are regrets for the result considering with all that we created, we deserved a wider scoreline. This is football, we keep going.

Atletico have been a more attacking proposition this season but retreated into the dogged defensive mode more representative of Diego Simeone`s long reign in Spain.

They could not keep Inter out and now have to overturn Tuesday`s result in order toreach the quarter-finals.

`We have to keep our heads up, there is one game left and we are going to do everything possible to get through,` said Oblak to Movistar. `They had two or three chances when we weren`t perfect and in a game like this you have to be perfect all the time.

In Tuesday`s other match, Donyell Malen scored a superb goal against his former side but a second-half penalty from Luuk de Jong earned a 1-1 draw for PSV Eindhoven against Borussia Dortmund at the Philips Stadion.

Dutch international Malen rifled in a thunderous shot from a tight angle after 24 minutes but the home side created the better chances and finally took one when De Jong scored from a spot-kick,awarded for a foul by Dortmund defender Mats Hummels.

That goal stretches PSV`s unbeaten home run to 31 games in all competitions and leaves the tie evenly poised with the return leg in Dortmund to come in three weeks.

But PSV coach Peter Bosz was left ruing missed chances.

`In the second half, we had loads of chances. It was a shame that we didn`t score a second,` Bosz told reporters after the game.

Dortmund took the lead against the run of play in the 24th minute when Malen, who had four successful years at PSV before moving to the Bundesliga in 2021, squeezed a deflected shot into the top corner.

PSV were awarded a penalty by referee Srdjan Jovanovic early in the second half when Hummels lunged in on Malik Tillman, which De Jong slotted calmly past Alexander Meyer.

Hummels admitted his team let the intimidating atmosphere in Eindhoven, the home fans letting off a volley of fireworks at kick-off, `get to us too much` but was confident of advancing into the quarter-finals.

`I saw a very beatable Eindhoven today. In our home game, the second leg, we simply need to play better with the ball. Then, I am very confident that we will progress, said Hummels.-Agencies