Treble-chasing Inter beats Juventus 1-0 to reach Cup final

Milan, April 26 (BNA): Inter Milan continued their pursuit of the treble, as they beat Juventus 1-0 on Wednesday to reach the Coppa Italia final for the second time in a row.

Federico Dimarco scored the only goal of the match to help defending champions Inter advance 2-1 on aggregate. The Nerazzurri will play either Fiorentina or Cremonese in the final on May 24 in Rome.

Inter will play AC Milan in the Champions League semi-finals next month. The Associated Press (AP) reported that they beat their city rivals to win the Italian Super Cup in January.

Inter had Romelu Lukaku available after the Italian Football Federation revoked his suspension in a ‘manifesto against racism’.

Lukaku was awarded a second yellow card in the second leg for provoking the Juventus fans by putting 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.

However, Lukaku – who is black – has been subjected to frequent discriminatory chants.

The Inter striker was brought on as a second-half substitute at the San Siro.

By then, Inter were already leading, having taken a somewhat fortuitous lead in the 15th minute.

Niccolò Barella’s through ball looked to be for Edin Dzeko but it reached DeMarco. The Inter defender took his shot, but it lunged into the net, and Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin sent the wrong way.

That seemed to wake Juventus up and equalized almost 10 minutes after half-time, but Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana pulled off a save from Filip Kostić’s effort from 20 yards.

Džeko thought he had doubled Inter’s lead seven minutes after the break but was ruled offside.

Dimarco almost helped his team in the 73rd minute with a free kick that went off the wall and into the path of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but Perrin made a wonderful save with one hand to deny him from close range.

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