Milan edge Inter in Supercoppa battle

Milan have qualified for the Coppa Italia final after edging Serie A champions Inter Milan 4-1 on aggregate.

Sergio Conceicao qualified for his second final as Milan under four months with a 3-0 win in the second leg of their semi-final against rivals with a brace from the in-form Luka Jovic. 

Inter seem to have more of their attention on the upcoming UEFA Champions League clash by resting Marcus Thuram, Denzel Dumfries, and Hakan Calhanoglu, who later played some minutes.

Milan, with just to win the title in their sight, selected Jovic with Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic up front, continuing with their 3-4-3 shape despite the continued absence of Kyle Walker. 

Inter had the first opportunity through Matteo Darmian, with acres of space to run down Inter’s right flank made it to the corner of the six-yard box before dragging his shot slightly wide of the far post. 

Federico Dimarco hit the crossbar after a brilliantly-taken quick free-kick on the halfway line midway through the first 45.  

10 minutes later, Lautaro Martinez was presented with another free kick, which was almost identical opportunity to his goal in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich, reviving the knock-down from his striker partner in the area, but Argentine, this time around fired well over. 

Milan broke the deadlock with what was their first real opportunity of the game through a great team move that ended with the ball at Alex Jimenez’s feet on the right flank, who released a perfect cross for Jovic to slam home a header in the middle of the box. 

Jovic made it two for the Rossoneri five minutes into the second half, benefiting from a poor defending. Theo Hernandez’s corner was poorly defended, causing a mess in the middle, and the Serbian was on hand to stab home from five yards out. 

The Rossoneri had chances to make it three on the night when Alex Jimenez tried to chip Josep Martinez from the edge of the six-yard box but was offside.

The Rossoneri goalkeeper Mike Maignan made a huge save from Stefan De Vrij’s goal-bound header following Calhanoglu’s corner midway through the second period to protect their two-goal lead.

 Milan eventually got third, which put the game beyond any doubt when Leao slipped a ball in for Reijnders on the outside, and the Dutchman scored with his first-time finish from the corner of the six-yard box.

Milan will go on to face either Empoli or Bologna – The Rossoblu have a 3-0 advantage heading into their second leg on Thursday.