This Saturday, Napoli’s San Paolo stadium hosted the second-leg match of Coppa Italia’s semifinal. The hosts grabbed a 1-1 draw against Internazionale and qualified for the great final since they’ve won the first leg 1-0. The visitors were the first ones to score, with Christian Eriksen, however, Dries Mertens equalized for the home team.
The first half started how we thought it would. As Inter was behind in the scoring because of the first leg loss at home, they threw themselves on the hosts. With that, in the second minute of the game, they broke the deadlock with Eriksen’s goal from a corner.
After that, the Nerazzurri continued being the better side and they had other chances to score. At the 32nd minute, after a cross from Ashley Young, Romelu Lukaku’s header stopped in David Ospina’s good save. Eight minutes later, the Colombian goalkeeper had to make a difficult save after Antonio Candrevas’s strong shot.
At the 41st minute, however, the Azzurri found the equalizer. Lorenzo Insigne went forward and assisted Mertens, who went face-to-face with goalkeeper Samir Handanovic and put the ball into the back of the neat. This was the Belgian’s 122 goal for the Italian club, making him the top scorer in the history of the club.
During the second half, things didn’t change a lot. Internazionale kept on attacking more, even though the first good chance was from Napoli.
Eriksen had the perfect chance to put the visitors ahead on the scoring again after receiving the ball from Alexis Sanchez. However, even with the strong finish, Ospina made a miraculous save.
With the result, Gennaro Gattuso’s men qualified for the final and will now go to Rome to face Juventus. The match will happen next Wednesday, at the historic Olympic Stadium. On the other hand, Internazionale now will wait until the return of the Italian League for their next appointment, where Antonio Conte’s team will welcome Sampdoria.