Inter Milan maintained their push for a trio of trophies as they beat Juventus 1-0 last night to reach their second straight Italian Cup final.
Federico Dimarco scored the only goal of the match to help defending champion Inter advance 2-1 on aggregate. The Nerazzurri will play either Fiorentina or Cremonese in the final on May 24 in Rome.
Inter play AC Milan in the Champions League semi-finals next month. They beat their city rivals to win the Italian Super Cup in January.
Inter had Romelu Lukaku available after his suspension was overturned by the Italian soccer federation in a “statement against racism.”
Lukaku had picked up a second yellow card in the opening leg for provoking Juventus fans by holding his finger to his lips as if to silence the crowd after converting a stoppage-time penalty to snatch a 1-1 draw in Turin.
The Inter forward was brought on as a second-half substitute at San Siro.
By that time Inter was already in front, having taken the lead somewhat fortuitously in the 15th minute.
Nicolò Barella’s through ball appeared to be for Edin Džeko but it reached Dimarco. The Inter defender scuffed his shot but it rolled into the back of the net, sending Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin the wrong way.
That seemed to wake Juventus up and they almost levelled 10 minutes from halftime but Inter goalkeeper André Onana pulled off a great save to palm Filip Kostić’s 20-yard effort away.
Džeko thought he had doubled Inter’s lead seven minutes after the break but it was ruled out for offside.
Dimarco almost helped his team to a second in the 73rd minute with a free kick that came off the wall and into the path of Henrikh Mkhitaryan but Perin pulled off a fantastic one-handed save to deny him at close range.
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