After Edin Dzeko led his team to a 3-0 victory over local rivals AC Milan, Inter Milan retained the Italian Super Cup on Wednesday.
Dzeko caused the damage in the first 21 minutes in Riyadh by passing a defense-splitting pass to Federico Dimarco, who scored in the 10th minute and doubled Inter’s lead 11 minutes later.
In the 77th minute, Lautaro Martinez added a brilliantly taken third to highlight Inter’s superiority on a night when Milan simply did not show up.
As they did last year when they defeated Juventus, Inter wins the first trophy of the Italian season.
“We put up a tremendous performance, the boys were brilliant from the first minute till the last whistle,” Dzeko said to Mediaset.
The team said, “I’m really happy that we’re bringing home another trophy, and I hope there will be more in the future.”
We were aware of how amazing it was to win the Super Cup the previous year. Even though the unusual Milan derby on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia did not have the boisterous soundtrack of a packed San Siro, Inter fans will still be vying for the Super Cup for the seventh time.
In what is beginning to look like a one-team title race, both teams are far behind Napoli, but Inter looked like a cut above the uninspired Italian champions Milan, who barely helped Simone Inzaghi.
“We weren’t up to the challenge in the first half, we made too many mistakes, and from then it was tough to turn the match around,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli told Mediaset.
Although we still have the remainder of the season, the loss hurts since we hoped to take home a trophy. All we have to do is return to playing the way we know how.
Dzeko assisted Inter to a two-goal halftime lead that was more than deserved, punishing Milan for their sluggish start to the year.
The 36-year-old sent Nicolo Barella scurrying through Milan’s defense in a beautiful way, allowing the Italy midfielder to roll a low pass that Dimarco, his compatriot, had no trouble tucking away.
Dzeko then scored from a tight angle to make up for Milan’s poor defense of a free kick by charging through on Alessandro Bastoni’s well-placed long pass, cutting inside Sandro Tonali and scoring.
In the second half, Milan fought back, but Rafael Leao’s underwhelming shot over the crossbar three minutes after the break was their closest chance to get back into the game.
When Argentina forward beat Fikayo Tomori and controlled Milan Skriniar’s long pass before tucking in a beautiful finish with the outside of his right foot, Martinez made absolutely certain that Inzaghi would win his fourth Super Cup as a coach.