Inter Milan are through to the Coppa Italia semifinals after beating rival AC Milan, 2-1, on Tuesday in a game that had it all. Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring, but his red card in the second one half opened the door for an Inter comeback, and it was once Romelu Lukaku’s penalty kick that equalized before Christian Eriksen sealed it late.
The Danish midfielder came on as a substitute and put home a free kick in the 96th minute to earn the victory in the Derby della Madonnina.
Here are a couple of takeaways from the match.
The good and naughty of Ibra
Anybody who saw that game saw what Ibrahimovic does so polite and also possibly his biggest flaw. The 38-year-old legend gave his team the lead with an implausible shot in the first half off the post with this brilliant effort.
Then it all went downhill. First, he got into it with Romelu Lukaku and in truth appeared like the composed one.
Then, it was once Ibrahimovic who missing his cool and picked up his second yellow card in the second one half, resulting in a red card that put his team in a naughty spot the remainder of the way before Inter equalized.
Controversial penalty goes Inter’s way
Nico Barella went down in the box when it appeared like Rafael Leao swept him off his feet with a slide tackle, but the replay looked as if it would show the Italian talent jumping over Leao’s leg and not being touched. It certainly gave the look of a dive, and the penalty was once not first of all provided. The referee, who left the match because of injury himself, overturned the call thanks to VAR and awarded a penalty that Lukaku would not overlook.
Inter move on to the Coppa Italia semifinals next week.