David Ospina’s howler allowed Christian Eriksen to score from a corner, but he made up for it by creating the Dries Mertens equaliser, as Napoli lead Inter 2-1 on aggregate at half-time.
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The winner will go through to face Juventus in the Coppa Italia Final in Rome on Wednesday June 17.
Napoli won the first leg 1-0 at San Siro on February 12 with a deflected Fabian Ruiz strike, but the Spaniard was only fit for the bench here along with Allan, while Kostas Manolas and Stanislav Lobotka were injured. Christian Eriksen was given a new trequartista role for Inter, though Matias Vecino, Diego Godin and Danilo D’Ambrosio were on the treatment table.
It was the perfect start for Inter, as within three minutes Eriksen’s corner glanced the head of Giovanni Di Lorenzo and David Ospina completely mis-read the bounce, allowing it to squirm through his legs at the near post. They were immediately all-square on aggregate and in terms of away goals.
Antonio Candreva and Marcelo Brozovic weren’t too far off target, while Samir Handanovic got away with a scare on Alessandro Bastoni’s weak back-pass and gathered a deflected Mertens effort.
Ospina did considerably better on 31 minutes with his one-handed save at full stretch on Lukaku’s header from an Ashley Young cross.
However, Young was very lucky not to get sent off moments later, as he was already on a yellow card when clattering Politano again in midfield with a very clumsy challenge.
Inter continued to attack, with Candreva selfishly going for goal himself when there were three other teammates in the box, forcing another fine save out of Ospina.
On the resulting corner, the goalkeeper proved decisive again with a magnificent long ball to find Lorenzo Insigne, who drew two defenders away and placed a no-look pass for totally unmarked Mertens to sweep into the empty net. It was a record-breaking strike, as Mertens surpasses Marek Hamsik to become Napoli’s all-time top scorer with 122 goals.
This means they cannot go to penalties, because there can be no draw on aggregate with away goals taken into account.
Napoli 1-1 Inter (Half-Time, 2-1 agg)
Eriksen 3 (I), Mertens 41 (N)
Napoli: Ospina; Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Koulibaly, Hysaj; Elmas, Demme, Zielinski; Politano, Mertens, Insigne
Inter: Handanovic; Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni; Candreva, Brozovic, Barella, Young; Eriksen; R Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez
Ref: Rocchi
VAR: Valeri
Follow all the action as it happens and give your views on the LIVEBLOG.
The winner will go through to face Juventus in the Coppa Italia Final in Rome on Wednesday June 17.
Napoli won the first leg 1-0 at San Siro on February 12 with a deflected Fabian Ruiz strike, but the Spaniard was only fit for the bench here along with Allan, while Kostas Manolas and Stanislav Lobotka were injured. Christian Eriksen was given a new trequartista role for Inter, though Matias Vecino, Diego Godin and Danilo D’Ambrosio were on the treatment table.
It was the perfect start for Inter, as within three minutes Eriksen’s corner glanced the head of Giovanni Di Lorenzo and David Ospina completely mis-read the bounce, allowing it to squirm through his legs at the near post. They were immediately all-square on aggregate and in terms of away goals.
Antonio Candreva and Marcelo Brozovic weren’t too far off target, while Samir Handanovic got away with a scare on Alessandro Bastoni’s weak back-pass and gathered a deflected Mertens effort.
Ospina did considerably better on 31 minutes with his one-handed save at full stretch on Lukaku’s header from an Ashley Young cross.
However, Young was very lucky not to get sent off moments later, as he was already on a yellow card when clattering Politano again in midfield with a very clumsy challenge.
Inter continued to attack, with Candreva selfishly going for goal himself when there were three other teammates in the box, forcing another fine save out of Ospina.
On the resulting corner, the goalkeeper proved decisive again with a magnificent long ball to find Lorenzo Insigne, who drew two defenders away and placed a no-look pass for totally unmarked Mertens to sweep into the empty net. It was a record-breaking strike, as Mertens surpasses Marek Hamsik to become Napoli’s all-time top scorer with 122 goals.
This means they cannot go to penalties, because there can be no draw on aggregate with away goals taken into account.
Napoli 1-1 Inter (Half-Time, 2-1 agg)
Eriksen 3 (I), Mertens 41 (N)
Napoli: Ospina; Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Koulibaly, Hysaj; Elmas, Demme, Zielinski; Politano, Mertens, Insigne
Inter: Handanovic; Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni; Candreva, Brozovic, Barella, Young; Eriksen; R Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez
Ref: Rocchi
VAR: Valeri
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