Serie A champions Inter Milan have secured the Supercoppa Italiana final after a brace from Denzel Dumfries decided the semifinal tie against Atalanta.
Atalanta, who won the Europa League trophy last season, saw its goal ruled offside and paid the price for unorthodox choices.
The match between the Serie A winners and the Coppa Italia runners-up at the Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh lived up to its billing.
Led Dea went into the clash as joint leaders in the Serie A after a draw against Lazio ended their 11-match winning streak.
Inter made an aggressive start that could have made them out of sight within 30 minutes, but captain Lautaro Martinez was wasteful in front of goal. Marco Carnesecchi was forced to make a great reaction save to turn Martinez’s effort over from six yards on the Hakan Calhanoglu free kick, while Yann Bisseck nodded over from the resulting corner.
Scalvini called Yann Sommer to action with a header that went straight at the Switzerland goalie.
Carnesecchi came to his team’s rescue after a poor Alessandro Bastoni. He made a desperate double save on Lautaro Martinez when sent through the middle and the Federico Dimarco follow-up.
Martinez would rue his miss – a sign that he has been off form this season when he twice mis-kicked from promising positions.
He would later make up for his mistake with an assist for their first goal. His back-heel flick sent Dumfries through, the referee waving play on as Matteo Ruggeri leaned into the back of him from six yards while Marcus Thuram went off with a minor muscular issue.
Inter eventually took the lead straight after the restart on a contested corner. Bisseck knocked the ball down for Dumfries, who controlled for an acrobatic half-volley on the turn from six yards.
After introducing their star names, Atalanta began to pour forward in search of an equalizer but was punished by the counter-attack.
After Mehdi Taremi failed to control the Dimarco roll across, Dumfries continued to smash first off the underside of the crossbar from the edge of the area.
Atalanta had the ball in the net on 72 minutes, as Carlos Augusto made a sensational block on Charles De Ketelaere from point-blank range, but Dimarco on the line couldn’t keep out the powerful Ederson follow-up. However, the goal was chalked off after a VAR consultation as Ketelaere was offside on the second attempt and the goal.
Atalanta kept pushing for an equaliser as Marco Brescianini’s strike got deflected over. Then a triple opportunity came from the resulting corner as Yann Sommer made a desperate double save on Berat Djimsiti and Ademola Lookman headers, and the two teammates both tried to prod in the third time of asking, firing over.
If Inter wins the final, they will become the first club to win the Supercoppa Italiana for four years running. They will face Juventus or Milan in the final on Monday, January 6.
