Inter Milan have beaten Juventus in a highly entertaining Coppa Italia final, which ended 4-2 after extra time, but Max Allegri has every right to be disgusted by the decisions which went against us.
It was a dire start to the match for the Old Lady, with the Nerazzurri taking an extremely early lead when Nicolo Barella’s fine strike from just outside the box left Mattia Perin with no chance of stopping it as it flew into the far corner.
Inter continued to be in the front foot for much of the opening 15 minutes, but we gradually began to turn the screw as the half ran on, and Paulo Dybala had a couple of chances to level the score, with both of his efforts going narrowly wide of the post, but you could feel that we were really building some serious momentum.
When Danilo had to go off with injury shortly before the break and Alvaro Morata was the man called on to replace him, you knew things were going to be more attacking after the break.
That change moved to change the game as shortly into the new half, Alvaro Morata got a slight flick on Alex Sandro’s strike to send it just beyond Handanovic and allow us to draw level.
Just two minutes later, we had stormed into the lead, with Dusan Vlahovic being played in behind the defence as we hit our rivals on the counter, and while his initial shot was saved, the rebound fell to him to make sure of it.
The Nerazzurri quickly grew frustrated with the situation, and were lucky to keep 11 men on the field. Marcelo Brozovic was penalised for an obvious free-kick before booting the ball away in anger, and Max Allegri was furious that the Croatian wasn’t to receive a second yellow, despite the clear rule-break.
We continued to push for a third despite now holding the lead, but just like in the first-half, the team that was trailing managed to grow into things and build up their own pressure.
While it almost appeared destined for Inter to get back level as the game was ticking on, the way in which it came was not pretty.
Lautauro Martinez picked up the ball in the box after Edin Dzeko had headed it down into his path, and while he paused to earn some space in the box, as he pulled his leg back to fire off the shot, he seemed to get his foot stuck between Leo Bonucci’s leg behind him, much to the surprise of the defender, and there was a level of surprise that the referee wasn’t even asked to review his decision by the monitors.
Extra-time was probably fair on the actual performance during the 90 minutes, but you couldn’t help but feel that two big refereeing decisions had gone against us, and we were now to go into overtime without the momentum.
ET started a little slow, which will have been no shock given what was at stake, but the current league leaders found themselves gifted another penalty less than 10 minutes in. This time Perisic stepped up and smashed his spotkick into the opposite to Perin’s dive.
The Croatian forward killed the game off just minutes after that with an amazing two-touch finish, controlling the ball on the bounce with his right, before smashing it with his left before the final change of ends.
While we moved to replace Dybala with Moise Kean to freshen things up afterwards, the deficit proved too tough to deal with, and Allegri was sent off on the touchlines as he was unable to control his frustrations with the amount of decisions which had gone against his side.
Defeat definitely seems harsh on our performance, and you can completely understand why Allegri would have been unable to contain himself on the touchlines, and those refereeing decisions will definitely be in the spotlight, decisions which marred a great game.
Patrick
The current league leaders? You got that one completely wrong.
Bonucci looked like that he took an assisting role on the touchline before being brought in in 2nd half. And he conceeded a penalty..later on De Ligt did the same mistake. This is what happened when player can not concentrate..however it was Allegri tactic also to be questioned as he lowered to normal defensive mode to allow this 2 penalties.
The fault lies completely with Allegri!
When you have a system that works so well that it gives you the lead, why change it right after the second goal and go full defensive???
It’s just plain ignorance…..
Totally agree with what was said about tactics change here.
Still, Inter can’t win without penalties.
This deliberate, bad officiating is What affecting series a & Italy s national team.Always looking 4 s way 2 cheat and if there isn’t then d squad slumps & dies.
Wow. I’ve hears spoiled four year olds whinge less than this post.
There were no controversies to mar the final. Inter was better. Come on, Juve fans … you’re better than this sort of childish tantrum.