Inter will face Milan or Lazio in the Coppa Italia semi-final after beating Jose Mourinho’s Roma 2-0 with an early Edin Dzeko volley and spectacular long-range Alexis Sanchez screamer.
The Nerazzurri had to shake off Saturday’s Serie A defeat to Milan, with Joaquin Correa, Robin Gosens and Felipe Caicedo injured, bringing in Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Darmian and Arturo Vidal. This was Jose Mourinho’s first return to San Siro as an opponent since winning the Treble in 2010 and he was greeted with huge applause, chants for the coach drowning out the Lega Serie A anthem.
Not even 90 seconds had passed when Inter took the lead, Chris Smalling failing to cut out an Ivan Perisic cross from the left, finding Edin Dzeko for a cushioned volley off the inside of the right boot.
It was very nearly 2-0 by the sixth minute, a Nicolò Barella screamer from over 20 metres out smashing against the crossbar, then Rui Patricio smothered Milan Skriniar and Dzeko headers.
Roma finally started to get into the game after 15 minutes, Danilo D’Ambrosio risking an own goal when he deflected a Henrikh Mkhitaryan cross onto the top of the bar, then Samir Handanovic using his legs to parry a Nicolò Zaniolo effort from close range.
Inter lost Alessandro Bastoni on the stroke of half-time, as he fell awkwardly and badly sprained his ankle, while Roger Ibanez also went off.
Handanovic rushed out to smother at the feet of Zaniolo after great work from Abraham and the goalkeeper flew to fingertip a deflected Sergio Oliveira effort over the bar.
Barella also forced a save at the other end with another ferocious long-range strike on the half-volley.
The offside flag was up, but that didn’t take away from the quality of Zaniolo managing to steer his shot on target from an impossible angle, or Skriniar somehow clearing off the line.
Just as Inter seemed to be under pressure, they doubled their lead with a stunner from Alexis Sanchez, a ground-to-air missile from 20 metres into the far top corner that was simply unstoppable. Roma protested there was a foul by Arturo Vidal in the build-up, but VAR did not intervene.
Perisic’s header flashed just wide from a free kick and it got even worse for Roma when Abraham limped off clutching the back of his right thigh.
Inter 2-0 Roma
Dzeko 2 (I), Alexis Sanchez 68 (I)
Awesome goal by Sanchez! But Zaniolo should not have been booked in the first half. He was nowhere close to elbowing Bastoni in the face. As far Bastoni, I hope his injury is nothing serious.
Milanwizz, thanks, man. You had loads of injuries. Now it’s our turn.
This match showed that Inter is a more experienced and polished side than Roma. They clearly deserved the win. Roma is still very much a team under construction.