A lone strike from Federico Dimarco was enough for Inter to overcome Juventus in the second leg of the Coppa Italia Semi Final and book their ticket to the last act. The Nerazzurri advanced 2-1 on aggregate and will face the winner between Fiorentina and Cremonese in the final tilt of the domestic cup on May 24.
It was a well-deserved victory for Simone Inzaghi and co. at the San Siro as Juventus did little to trouble them after conceding the only goal of the night on 15 minutes. On the other hand, Inter came close to double their lead in at least two occasions and goalkeeper Mattia Perin had some work to do to keep the score at 1-0 only.
Inzaghi made nine changes versus his winning exploit at Empoli this past weekend, deploying Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko upfront. Romelu Lukaku was left on the bench despite having had the one-match ban he gained during the first leg revoked by the Italian Football Association.
Massimiliano Allegri could not count on the injured Dusan Vlahovic. Federico Chiesa and Angel Di Maria were his men on the front line but none of them made an impact as Juventus seemed keen on playing on the counter while the Nerazzurri were the more aggressive side.
Inter’s proactive approach soon paid off. A Nicoló Barella cross found Lautaro in the middle of the box but El Toro failed to connect with the ball. That was just the prelude to the Beneamata‘s opener, which came on 15 minutes, courtesy of a phenomenal filtering pass from Barella to Dimarco. The left winger’s touch from close range left no chance to Perin.
Juventus’ reaction only resulted in a Filip Kostic shot that called André Onana to action. That was the only time the Cameroonian shot-stopper had to dirt his gloves tonight. Before the half time break, Perin had to defuse a Lautaro Martinez challenge to keep the score unchanged.
Allegri sent in Arkadiusz Milik for Kostic at half time, switching to a 4-3-3 setup, but the trend did not change as the Bianconeri seemed uncapable of creating any trouble to Onana. Conversely, Inter should have had their second when Dzeko fired the ball past Perin after getting rid of his marker Bremer. Too bad for Inter that the Bosnian was caught offside when he received the ball.
Lautaro failed to connect with a Denzel Dumfries cross, then Perin made the save of the night as he pushed back a tricky shot from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but that didn’t help the Bianconeri.
Things did not change even when Allegri switched to an even more offensive setup as Paul Pogba’s entrance reshaped Juve’s lineup in 4-2-3-1 fashion. It only produced a brilliant filtering pass from Milik to Chiesa, but Onana was fast to react and pounced on the ball to anticipate the former Fiorentina man.
Juve’s pressure increased in the dying minutes of the game but the Bianconeri lacked ideas and so Inter could wrap their qualification without breaking too much of a sweat. It wasn’t a memorable victory, nor a memorable game but getting to the final stage was all that mattered for Inzaghi and his boys.
 |
Follow us on Google News for more updates on Serie A and Italian football |