Inter breeze past Lazio and into Italian Super Cup final

Goals in each half from Marcus Thuram and Davide Frattesi and Hakan Calhanoglu's penalty four minutes after the break were enough for Serie A leaders Inter to get past Lazio at Al-Awwal Park. Simone Inzaghi's team, the current holders, will now face Napoli on Monday night at the same stadium after the Italian champions beat Fiorentina 3-0 on Thursday.

"It was a great performance, we had a lot of fun out there, like we haven't for a while," said Nicolo Barella to Mediaset. "Everyone wanted the ball today, we had fun and that is important... it's taken a lot of work to reach this level of quality." Inzaghi now has a chance to win the Super Cup for a record-breaking fifth time in his career.

A win for Inter on Monday would also give them a third straight Super Cup victory, making them the second team to complete the hat-trick after local rivals AC Milan between 1992 and 1994. "We approached the game well, the boys played really well. We've got to the final which is what we wanted, now we need to recover in time for the match with Napoli which will be very difficult," said Inzaghi.

Inter have a tight title race with Juventus and the Champions League last-16 to contend with in the coming weeks but Inzaghi brought out the big guns to shoot down Lazio. An uninterested-looking Lazio barely had a kick in a one-sided contest which showed why Inter are favourites to take the Scudetto from Napoli come May.

Inter created a huge number of chances while Barella and Lautaro Martinez both had efforts hit the bar in a dominant display. Lazio meanwhile will head back to Rome after having not created an opening in front of a largely tepid crowd in the Saudi Arabian capital.

Napoli's win over Fiorentina was played out in front of a two-thirds empty ground and while Inter and Lazio had a bigger crowd there was limited enthusiasm from the stands. This season's Super Cup in the first to feature four teams, with the top two in last season's Serie A and the two Italian Cup finalists contesting the tournament.

 

January 20, 2024