The Euro-Derby di Milano is served. Inter reached the Champions League Semi Finals for the first time since the glorious days of Jose Mourinho’s Triplete as they tied 3-3 with Benfica at the San Siro on Wednesday night.
Despite squandering a two-goal lead, the Nerazzurri advanced 5-3 on aggregate and will now face Milan in an epic Derby della Madonnina European affair. It will be the third time that the two sides of Milano lock horns in the Champions League. Milan prevailed in both past occasions, coming on top in a 2002/03 Semi Final (another one!) and the 2004/05 Quarter Finals.
But if there is one thing that we learned from this edition of the Champions League, it is that anything can happen, especially when Simone Inzaghi and co. are involved. The Nerazzurri are going through a dismal run of form domestically – where they have lost four out of their last five outings.
Still, they disposed of Roger Schmidt’s Benfica with relative ease. Most of the job was done one week ago at the Estadio da Luz, where the Nerazzurri snatched a convincing 0-2 win. But tonight, they came up with a cunning performance as they let the Portuguese play and managed to hit them on the counter at the right moment.
Benfica were expected to be the more aggressive side of the two, but it was Inter to surprisingly have the upper hand in the initial stages of the game. Their approach was relentless and they found the back of the net from their second chance of the night, after Lautaro Martinez had squandered their first from a Federico Dimarco fast break (Spoiler alert: El Toro would redeem himself later in the game).
The first goal of the night sparked from Edin Dzeko winning a tackle against Nicolas Otamendi and serving Martinez, who exchanged the ball with Nicoló Barella. The pocket-sized Sardinian got rid of his marker and fired a deadly curl shot into the top left corner of poor Odisseas Vlachodimos’ goal. It was the second one in a row for Barella, who also made it to the scoresheet week ago in Lisbon.
The San Siro was on fire but Benfica somehow found the strength to react. On 30 minutes, André Onana had to defuse an Alejandro free-kick from out of the box. However, he could not do anything eight minutes later to prevent Fredrik Aursnes’ clinical header from hitting the back of the net.
That was the best moment for the Lisbon side, who piled on the pressure and put the Nerazzurri to the ropes for a good 30 minutes. The half-time break came as a relief for Inzaghi and his boys, but the trend didn’t change after the restart – also because coach Schmidt deployed an additional striker in David Neres.
Benfica seemed in full control while Inter’s strategy now turned into weathering the storm and trying to surprise the Portuguese with long balls. It turned to be a winning approach, as Lautaro finally broke his scoring drought on 65 minutes. It all started from another Dimarco initiative, which picked Henrikh Mkitharyan in the box.
The Armenian’s give-and-go with Dimarco resulted in Lautaro only having to tap the ball in from close range to make it 2-1 for Inter. Not the most spectacular finish for the Argentine, but an overly important one considering his poor run of form.
Thirteen minutes later, the Nerazzurri found some more unexpected help as substitute Joaquin Correa – whose last goal tallied dated back to October 29 – doubled the home side’s lead. This was a brilliant finish though, as El Tucu beat Vlachodimos with a sharp right-foot curl.
The late goals from Antonio Silva and Petar Musa only served the purpose of setting the score at 3-3 as Inter hit the brakes a bit too early – a luxury they won’t be able to take in the upcoming confrontation with city rivals Milan.
The two Milanese sides will face each other again in a Champions League Semi Final exactly 20 years after their first European derby. Milan won on “away” goals in that occasion. But the away goals rule – which made absolutely no sense in the case of a cross-town clash – has been abandoned since then. Inter must surely be taking it as a good omen.
 |
Follow us on Google News for more updates on Serie A and Italian football |