MILAN

Substitute Alexis Sánchez scored with the last kick of the game to help Inter Milan win the Italian Super Cup with a 2-1 victory over bitter rivals Juventus after extra time on Wednesday.

Sánchez’s goal, aided by a mistake from the Juventus defense, sparked scenes of savage celebration in San Siro as nearly every member of the Inter bench ran onto the pitch to hug Sánchez in the most corner. distant.

Lautaro Martínez converted a first-half penalty to cancel US midfielder Weston McKennie’s first game for Juventus in an entertaining game for the season’s first silverware.

Sanchez has now scored three goals in his last five games, but was only taken off the bench in the 75th minute.

“I thought I would play because I was fit, I was hungry to win something,” Sánchez said. “I was like a caged lion, if they let me play I will become a monster.”

Defending champion Juventus has a record nine Italian Supercopa victories. But it was the first time since 2012 that he had qualified for the game as an Italian Cup winner rather than league champion after seeing his streak of nine successive Serie A titles end with the Inter and former coach Antonio Conte last season.

Inter lead Serie A again, 11 points ahead of Juventus, who have had a difficult start to the season.

“Sometimes football seems to have been invented by the devil and we made a naive mistake in the end,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “Defeat hurts. Losing should give us anger to use in the League, the Italian Cup and the Champions League.”

Inter coach Simone Inzaghi extended his impressive Italian Super Cup record against Juventus, having won his previous two matches in the competition against the Bianconeri when he was in charge of Lazio in 2017 and 2019 .

Juventus were without a number of players due to injuries and suspensions, while goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny was on the bench as he only recently received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine and was therefore unable to enter in contact with his teammates that shortly. before kick-off due to new rules that entered into force in Italy on Monday.

Inter lost several chances to take the lead in the opening 10 minutes. The Nerazzurri also believed they should have received a penalty when Nicolò Barella was punched in the shoulder by Giorgio Chiellini but, after a quick check with the video assistant referee, play continued.

Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovič was such a spectator in the first quarter of an hour that he resorted to show jumping in the middle of his half of the field to try to warm up on a chilly night in Milan.

But Inter had to pay for their lavishness when, after a series of crosses, Álvaro Morata returned the ball for McKennie to move to the other side of the net.

However, Inter received a penalty shortly after.

Juventus defender Mattia De Sciglio tried to clear the ball but failed to realize thatdin Džeko was running behind him and knocked Inter forward. Martínez blew up the penalty in the upper right corner.

Juventus almost restored their lead early in the second half but Federico Bernardeschi shot just off the right post.

Inter got even closer on the hour mark as Denzel Dumfries’ header on a cross from Hakan Çalhanoğlu appeared to come in, but Mattia Perin managed to get him inside the goal.

Perin also made a good save to keep Martínez’s header from point blank.

Inter almost immediately took the lead in extra time, but Sánchez took a narrow corner wide.

As the game headed for penalties, Juventus offered the winner to Inter. Bianconeri defender Alex Sandro tried to give Chiellini the ball but gave Matteo Darmian a chance to throw it back for Sánchez to shoot at home.

FIRST BY

Atalanta became the first team to advance to the Italian Cup quarter-finals, beating Venice 2-0.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s team will face Fiorentina or Napoli in the last eight.

Luis Muriel gave Atalanta the lead in the 11th minute with a controversial goal which was awarded after a long VAR check to see if he controlled the ball with his arm.

Atalanta also touched the woods twice and Venezia lost a goal before Joakim Mæhle sealed the victory two minutes from time.

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