Inter’s bizarre season experienced a new high on Wednesday night as a brace from Lautaro Martinez delivered the Coppa Italia to Simone Inzaghi’s band. After Fiorentina took an immediate lead with Nico Gonzales, El Toro took the game by storm and led the Nerazzurri to a second domestic cup win in a row, the ninth in the Beneamata‘s history.
Inter thus took another step towards an unprecedented “Lesser Triplete” as they are on track to win the Supercoppa, the Coppa Italia, and the Champions League. For Fiorentina, the night at the Stadio Olimpico ended in a disappointment as they failed to win the cup nine years after their last appearance in the Final. The last time the Viola lifted the domestic cup was back in 2001.
And still, Vincenzo Italiano and his boys had started off on right foot. Nico Gonzales opened the scoring three minutes after kick off. Jonathan Ikoné pulled off a brilliant assist for the Argentine, who was left free to tap the ball in at the far post as both Federico Dimarco and Alessandro Bastoni failed to intercept him.
But Inter were quick to react, even though Edin Dzeko squandered a glorious chance on 23 minutes with a hideous shot off target as he went 1vs1 with goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano. Five minutes later, Lautaro drew level for Inter, making the best out of a clinical filtering pass from Marcelo Brozovic. El Toro thus tallied his 100th goal with the Nerazzurri‘s jersey.
On 37 minutes, Martinez made it two for his side. This time, it was Nicoló Barella to service the Argentine, who volleyed the ball past the hapless Terracciano to set the score at 2-1.
Fiorentina pushed for an equalizer after the restart but it was still Inter to collect the most dangerous chances, with Romelu Lukaku missing the target from a favorable position.
The Viola woke up in the last quarter of the match but found the 39-year-old Samir Handanovic up to the task. On 74 minutes, the Inter long-serving captain denied Gonzales. Then, he literally saved the day with a close-range block from a Luka Jovic shot, frustrating Giacomo Bonaventura’s incredible filtering pass for the Serbian.
There were more late scares for Inter as Jokic failed to deflect the ball into the net from point-blank range, then Matteo Darmian saved Inter as he cleared the ball right on the goal line from a Nico Gonzales attempt.
The score didn’t change despite five minutes of stoppage time. It was Inter to celebrate as Simone Inzaghi collected the third Coppa Italia in his coaching career. Pazza Inter did it again. The most enigmatic, intermittent club in the Serie A panorama is turning what looked like a disastrous season into one of their most successful in recent history.