April 20, (THEWILL) – Inter defeated Milan 3-0 in the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg, thanks to a brace from Lautaro Martinez and a goal from substitute Robin Gosens.
The outcome means that either Juventus or Fiorentina will meet I Nerazzurri in the Coppa Italia final on May 11th.
Inter seized the lead within the first five minutes. Martinez, Inter’s outstanding player, scored a beautiful volley past Mike Maignan from just inside the 18-yard box.
Milan, seemingly unfazed by their early deficit, pressed forward with vigour after conceding. With his late rushes forward, Franck Kessie was causing issues for Inter’s backline, and he came close to drawing his side level in the 13th minute with a thundering strike from outside the box.
However, the ball sailed just wide of the right post.
Around the half-hour mark, the evening’s symbolic visitors missed another chance to draw level, with Rafael Leao’s drilled effort from the left of the spot superbly saved by Samir Handanovic.
Handanovic came to the rescue again for I Rossoneri, diving to his left to prevent Alexis Saelemaekers’ fantastic shot from the edge of the box from settling in the bottom right corner of the net.
Despite Milan’s excellent play, it was Inter that scored the game’s second goal. Martinez superbly darted in behind the Milan defence to latch onto a Joaquin Correa ball before dribbling past Maignan to score.
Inter almost went into halftime with a three-goal lead, but a Hakan Calhanoglu corner kick from the right, flicked on by Correa, almost avoided the onrushing Perisic at the back post.
At the start of the second half, the ‘home’ side were content to sit deep and catch Milan on the break, a strategy that suited Martinez and Correa’s counter-attacking abilities. In the 50th minute, the former came close to completing his hat-trick, but Maignan saved his attempt from just inside the box.
Stefano Pioli’s team kept pressing forward in search of a goal to draw the game, and they thought they had it in the 65th minute when Ismael Bennacer scored.
When Marcelo Brozovic headed a corner kick clear of the box, Bennacer slammed the ball into the back of the net from 20 yards out, but the goal was harshly ruled out for offside because Pierre Kalulu was adjudged to have been in the goalkeeper’s eye-line – despite Handanovic having no chance of ever saving Bennacer’s strike.
After this goal was disallowed, Milan wilted, allowing Inter to go up the other end and score a third goal with substitute Robin Gosens. Inter’s position in the Coppa Italia final was sealed when the winger sneaked in at the back post to slide in a Brozovic cross from the right side of the penalty box.
Both teams face capital city competition in the league this weekend, with Inter hoping to capitalise on their cup quarter-final success over Roma, while Milan has a difficult trip to Lazio, with the Scudetto contenders having maybe the worst run-in of all the Scudetto contenders.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
