Coppa Italia Review: Inter Milan vs Juventus
Inter Milan overcame longtime rivals Juventus in the Derby d’Italia to get to the Coppa Italia final. This is their first victory in five matches at the San Siro, the Nerazzurri will face either Fiorentina or Cremonese in their quest to defend the Coppa Italia title. Both teams came into the second leg with a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Allianz stadium in Turin.
Inter, pursuing a third consecutive Coppa Italia final, dominated from the start, having all of the ball as Juventus sat back and defended deep. The hosts nearly broke the deadlock in the first couple of minutes, but Edin Dzeko’s header was off target after being picked out at the back post by Nicolo Barella. The Italian midfielder, who was in charge of everything, quickly broke through the Juventus’ defenders with a beautiful ball, which Federico Dimarco pounced on from deep and slid past Mattia Perin to score the game’s first goal.
Inter were easily defeating a sluggish-looking Juve team, and Lautaro Martinez nearly doubled their advantage midway through the first half after dispossessing Manuel Locatelli inside his own half, but his attempt from the edge of the box missed by a mere fraction of an inch. Only Filip Kostic had a shot on goal that Andre Onana pushed away for Massimiliano Allegri’s team in the first half, which was otherwise an easy 45 minutes for Inter.
In the second half, Juventus played much higher up the pitch with a greater determination to attack, but Inter, who had the advantage, were able to take a more relaxed approach and looked dangerous on the break. Early in the second half, Locatelli tried Onana with a long shot, but the Cameroonian stopper dived superbly to grab the ball. Dzeko then believed he had increased Inter’s lead, but the celebrations were stopped short when a delayed offside flag was raised after skillfully turning Gleison Bremer inside and out in the box to score.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan came close to scoring to put the game to bed, but Perin brilliantly blocked his attempt at the last second. Although Juventus battled to make an impact on the second leg, Inter maintained control in the final chunks of the semi-final, allowing the Nerazzurri to easily advance to the final.
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