Inter-Venice 5-1
GOALS: 18′ pt Diouf, 20′ pt Esposito, 34′ pt and 6′ st Thuram, 21′ st Sagrado, 31′ st Bonny.
INTER (3-5-2): J. Martinez 6; Bisseck 7, De Vrij 6, Carlos Augusto 6; Diouf 7, Frattesi 7, Zielinski 6.5 (1′ st Mkhitaryan 6.5), Sucic 6 (34′ st Bovo sv), Luis Henrique 6 (15′ st Cocchi 6); Thuram 7.5 (15′ st Bonny 7), Esposito 7.5 (34′ st Spinaccè sv). On the bench: Sommer, Taho, Acerbi, Akanji, Maye, Bastoni, Chalanoglu, Barella, Dimarco, L. Martinez. Coach: Chivu 7.
VENICE (3-5-2): Big 6; Venturi 6, Korac 5.5, Sidibé 5.5 (1st st Schingtienne 6); Sagrado 6, Duncan 5.5, Bohinen 5, Lella 5.5 (36′ st Perez sv), Haps 5 (18′ st Row 6.5); Compagnon 5.5 (36′ st Hainaut sv), Casas 5 (36′ st Adorante sv). On the bench: Stankovic, Minelli, Svoboda, Busio, Doumbia, Bjarkason, El Haddad. Coach: Stroppa 5.5.
REFEREE: Di Marco di Ciampino 6.
NOTES: cloudy evening, terrain in excellent condition. Booked: Korac. Corners: 3-1. Recovery time: 1′ pt; 0′ st.
Venice speech closed in the first half hour, big players rested and positive responses from the second lines. Inter are on the move, finding the very best (5-1) against the lagoon players and qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup. Despite the many reservations, the Nerazzurri are too stronger than Stroppa’s team, which presents itself at San Siro with even more second lines than its rivals, also because the objective for the Venetians remains promotion to Serie A.
So for Thuram and his teammates everything becomes easy and Chivu takes home the good responses coming from the various Dioufs and Luis Henrique, towards Saturday’s delicate match in the championship against Como. Inter starts slyly but as soon as they accelerate, it hurts: Frattesi first makes the trend clear with a right-footed shot that goes off the side of the net, then serves an insertion from the former mysterious object Diouf who confirms his good moment by finding his first goal in an Inter shirt by beating Grandi with his right foot. There wasn’t even time for the lagoon players to settle down before the second goal arrived, thanks to a great shot from distance by Esposito from distance which slipped into the bottom corner for his first goal at San Siro as an Inter player. However, the gap on the pitch was too much, so much so that after yet another mistake by the Venetians under construction, Thuram took care of finding the 3-0 which closed the match already in the first half, beating Grandi with an angled right-footed shot from outside the area.
In the second half the match becomes little more than a training session for Inter, who finds Mkhitaryan again: the Armenian returns to the field after the break for the first time since the injury that kept him out since 25 October. However, the Nerazzurri found plenty of space, so much so that Luis Henrique immediately wasted the ball to make it 4-0 with a shot well saved by Grandi. However, it is a matter of a few minutes, because Thuram first triggers Frattesi with a pass and then closes the action with a header for Inter’s poker and his personal double. However, Venezia did not exit the match, so much so that they found the winner with Sagrado, who beat Martinez also thanks to a deflection from Carlos Augusto. Inter wakes up and comes close to winning with Diouf and Mkhitaryan, then finding it thanks to substitute Bonny with a nice right-footed shot from outside. Definitely a game on ice, therefore, with Chivu giving minutes to several youngsters such as Cocchi, Spinaccè and Bovo. And now he waits for the winner between Rome and Turin, scheduled for January, to understand who he will face in the quarterfinals.