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Inter Milan retains Coppa Italia trophy with Lautaro brace

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Lautaro Martinez scores twice to overturn the Nico Gonzalez opener for Fiorentina, as Inter retain the Coppa Italia and win their ninth edition of the trophy.

Both these teams were in the first of two Finals, as the Viola take on West Ham in the Conference League on June 7 and the Nerazzurri will face Manchester City in the Champions League on June 10.

Only Salvatore Sirigu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Milan Skriniar were out injured, while Samir Handanovic returned after his semi-final ban. The Inter ultras were on strike in the first 15 minutes in protest against ticket allocation for Istanbul.

It took under three minutes to break the deadlock, as Jonathan Ikone got down the left and rolled across past Arthur Cabral to find Nico Gonzalez unmarked at the back post.

Edin Dzeko’s effort was deflected onto the side-netting, while Sofyan Amrabat scuffed wide from the edge of the box, but Dzeko wasted a golden opportunity when Lautaro Martinez sent him clear on goal and he fired over as Pietro Terracciano came tearing out.

Inter did not make the same mistake twice, as this time Inzaghi sprung the offside trap on the Hakan Calhanoglu pass and the angled drive drew the teams level. It was Lautaro’s 100th goal in the Inter jersey.

It was soon followed by the 101st, because Nicolò Barella put in a cross from the right and Lautaro Martinez acrobatically volleyed into the roof of the net with his right boot from six yards.

Gaetano Castrovilli horribly mis-timed his header on Cristiano Biraghi’s cross that could’ve been the equaliser, while Arthur Cabral’s finish was too weak to trouble Samir Handanovic during a period of Viola pressure.

Pietro Terracciano made a double save on the Romelu Lukaku scorcher and the Federico Dimarco follow-up, although the latter was offside.

Riccardo Sottil just failed to get his head to a flicked-on cross from close range, Nico Gonzalez stung Samir Handanovic’s gloves and Biraghi’s rocket skimmed the crossbar.

Dodo did just enough to stop Robin Gosens meeting the Lukaku roll across, while Handanovic came flying out for a crucial save on Luka Jovic sent through by Jack Bonaventura.

Jovic wasted a golden opportunity with a looping header wide on Dodo’s cross, then Matteo Darmian made a decisive headed clearance to prevent the Cabral tap-in.

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