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Inter Milan set up a blockbuster derby in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday after a 3-3 draw with Benfica saw the Italians through 5-3 on aggregate.
Simone Inzaghi’s side will face local rival AC Milan in the last four thanks to goals from Nicolo Barella, Lautaro Martinez and Joaquin Correa which ensured straight-forward qualification.
Both Milan giants are trying to become the first Serie A side to win Europe’s top club competition since Inter last lifted the trophy in 2010.
Inter had come into Wednesday’s clash in a miserable run of form in which its only win in its last eight had come in last week’s first leg in Portugal.
The win set up two mouth-watering clashes with Milan next month after the Italian champion saw off Napoli on Tuesday night.
It also snapped a three-match home losing streak in which Inter hadn’t scored a single goal and continued Inter’s impressive season in cup competitions while their league campaign flounders.
Martinez and Correa ended worrying goalscoring droughts with their strikes, as well as making sure that Fredrik Aursnes, Antonio Silva and Petar Musa netting for the away side made no difference to the outcome of the tie.
Silva and Musa netted late on for Roger Schmidt’s team when Inter had already long made sure that they would be tussling Milan for a place in the June 10 final in Istanbul.
If there were any pre-match nerves among the sell-out San Siro crowd, they were soon eased as Inter immediately played like the team in two cup semi-finals rather than the one which has lost 11 times in Serie A.
Inter cruises through
It could have been ahead as early as the sixth minute when Lautaro wasted a great counter-attack by playing a poor pass to Federico Dimarco who was haring into the box.
However Martinez redeemed himself for the opener, snaffling up possession after Edin Dzeko battled with the Benfica defence and exchanging passes with Barella who unleashed a perfectly placed curler with his left.
But a defensive lapse allowed Aursnes to pull Benfica on the night seven minutes before the break, the Norwegian midfielder left completely alone to power a header past Andre Onana.
Inzaghi had said before the match that Inter would not simply defend but it sat back as Benfica pushed for an unlikely passage to the next round.
And with the home crowd enraged by Benfica fans chucking flares from the top-tier away end down onto home supporters, Martinez ensured Inter would go through in the 68th minute.
Dimarco was neatly found by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and the full-back put in a fizzing cross which Martinez expertly guided home to net his first goal since early March.
And a perfect night for Inter fans was completed with 12 minutes remaining when Correa shrugged off Nicolas Otamendi and curled in his first goal since early October.
Silva nodded home Alejandro Grimaldo’s cross with four minutes remaining but home fans were already singing ribald songs about Milan fans, and Musa’s low finish deep in stoppage time was nothing more than a second consolation for the defeated Portuguese.
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