(Football news) Federico Dimarco scored a first-half goal which earned his side a place in the Coppa Italia final for the second year in a row. They beat Juventus 1-0 at home in their semi-final second leg as they secured a 2-1 aggregate victory. It was the first time in six matches that Inter got the better of Juve in the Coppa Italia semi-final as they ended Juve’s streak of three consecutive finals.
Inter clearly become favourites for the cup as they will either face either Fiorentina or Cremonese in the final which is on May 24 at the Stadio Olimpico. Fiorentina won the first leg 2-0 as they will play the second leg on Thursday. Defending champions from the get go were brimming with confidence as they started on the front foot. Inter took the lead after 15 minutes when Nicolo Barella played inch perfect through ball to Dimarco who found the back of the net with one touch.
In the second half, it appeared that Edin Dzeko had doubled the lead with a brilliant finish from a very tight angle, but VAR deemed him to be offside. Juve second choice keeper Mattia Perin pulled off a brilliant save from Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s shot in the 73rd minute. Juve never got settled in the match as they attempted to get through the Inter defence, but in form Ghanaian keeper Andre Onana was alert to the danger.
“It was a wonderful evening, a lot of fair play, both teams played an intense match from start to finish. Clearly, my team deserved (to reach) the final over the two legs,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi told Mediaset. “The lads did so well tonight, as we never dropped back an inch against a quality opponent.”
Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri admitted that his team weren’t up to Inter’s level in various parts of the match. “The sensation is the first half, especially the first 15 minutes, we were asleep. It was better from then on, but we didn’t have enough shots on goal and Inter are a very physical team,” he said. “We need to improve the level of concentration and determination if we want to win matches.”
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