Inter breaks 11-year record, clinches Coppa Italia title

 

Serie  A defending champions, Inter Milan, have won the Coppa Italian title after defeating Juventus 4-2 after extra time.

The tie that saw Max Allegri given the marching order over an argument with Inzaghi’s assistant manager Massimiliano Farris had ended 2-2 in regulation time.

Simeone Inzaghi’s men clinched the title with two goals in the extra time after it had ended 2-2 during regulation time. This will also be the first time in ten years that Juventus will finish a whole season without a single title.

If Allegri had won the trophy, he would have been the manager with the highest number of trophies won in the Italian top flight.

Inter is also winning the title for the first time in 11 years. Now that the Coppa Italia is sorted, what’s next on the mind of Inzaghi will be defending the Scudetto.

The Nerazzurri will have to win their remaining games and hope that Milan at least slumps in one of their games to set another record of consecutive league titles.

Inter had repeated the success before the season began when they beat the same Juve team to the title courtesy of Alexis Sanchez’s last-gasp extra-time winner in the Supercoppa Italiana in January.

This is also the first time that both teams will be meeting in the Coppa Italia Final in 57 years. The Old Lady had won it in 1959 and 1965.

Inter took the lead within seven minutes through Nicolò Barella. The talented midfielder was given too much time and space to cut inside from the left and curl a stunning right-foot shot into the far top corner from outside the box.

Juve, in search of an equaliser, had a chance through Paulo Dybala, but Samir Handanovic smothered his scuffed effort. The goalie also made a sensational save on Dusan Vlahovic’s angled drive by sticking out one hand to push it away from the far top corner.

He also stopped Matthijs de Ligt;s header by tipping ot over the bar.

With the result remaining like that in the first half, Juventus equalised straight after the restart through Alex Sandro.

After Vlahovic turned Stefan de Vrij, his shot was charged down to the part of Sandro, who drilled the rebound drilled into the near bottom corner.

Juve them keep up with the momentum and later turned it around moments with a counter goal from an Inter corner. Bernardeschi chested the ball down and released a pass to Dybala. The Argentine released a slide-rule pass for Vlahovic, who sent Danilo D’Ambrosio to the ground with a dummy before Handanovic saved the first attempt, but he fired in at the second.

Inter then raised their game in search of an equaliser as Mattia Darmian tested Mattia Perin. As they continued to pressurise the Old Lady from a series of corners, they got the equaliser through Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty. Lautaro Martinez was fell by by Leonardo Bonucci and De Ligt and the refree pointed to he spot,

Calhanoglu powered the ball into the roof of the net to restore parity.

Just like Supercoppa Italiana, tension was sky high as the game went to extra time. Inter got in front again from another penalty. The referee awarded the spot-kick to Inter after a VAR review. Again De Ligt caught De Vrij with a knee. Ivan Perisic also fired into the roof to make it 3-2.

The Croatian winger, who will be a free agent this summer, extended the Nerazzurri’s advantage with a ferocious left-foot screamer into the top corner from the edge of the box with his stronger left foot.

 

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed