Inter Milan beat Torino 2-1 to book their sixth Coppa Italia semi-final in seven seasons.
Inter Milan secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Torino to reach the Coppa Italia semi-finals, doing so in unusual circumstances with FIFA President Gianni Infantino watching on from the stands. The win marks Inter’s sixth appearance in the last four of the competition across the past seven seasons.
The Nerazzurri were denied their usual home advantage after the San Siro was unavailable due to preparations for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. As a result, the quarter-final was staged 25 kilometres away at Monza’s U-Power Stadium, where a crowd of 17,000, including FIFA President Gianni Infantino, witnessed the action.
Inter started cautiously, continuing a trend that had seen just one of their previous 10 goals arrive inside the opening 30 minutes. Carlos Augusto came closest to breaking that pattern when his powerful long-range effort struck the crossbar in the 20th minute.
The breakthrough arrived 10 minutes before half-time, with 21-year-old Issiaka Kamate playing a key role on his full debut. The wing-back carved out space down the right and delivered a pinpoint cross that Ange-Yoan Bonny headed home, scoring his seventh goal of the season.
Inter doubled their advantage shortly after the restart through Andy Diouf, who had also scored in the previous round. The midfielder timed his run perfectly to meet Marcus Thuram’s cut-back, sliding the ball home for his third goal of the campaign, all of which have come in cup competitions.
Torino responded by pushing men forward in search of a lifeline, with Faustino Anjorin and Nikola Vlasic both going close. Their pressure paid off just before the hour mark when Pedersen’s cross looped invitingly for Kulenovic, who marked his full debut with his first goal for the club.
The visitors briefly thought they had drawn level when Matteo Prati headed home late on, but the effort was ruled out for offside.
Vlasic curled another chance wide in the closing stages, but Inter held firm to make it eight consecutive wins over Torino and set up a semi-final clash with either Como or Napoli, while Torino’s wait for a win against the Nerazzurri stretched to 14 matches.
