Italian Cup: Inter cruise into last-eight
Davide Santon of Internazionale. PHOTO: AFP
Serie A leaders Inter Milan cruised into the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup on Wednesday with a 3-0 win over Cagliari as third division Alessandria claimed another top-flight scalp on their way to the last-eight.
Rodrigo Palacio’s close-range tap-in opened the scoring on 24 minutes before Marcelo Brozovic hit the back of the net in the 71st minute to leave ‘keeper Alessio Cragno rooted to the spot.
Ivan Perisic came off the bench in the latter stages and completed the scoring with a fine individual effort of his own nine minutes from time.
Inter, Fiorentina march on
A fortnight after ending Palermo’s interest in the competition with a shock 3-2 win in Sicily, Alessandria stopped Genoa’s progress thanks to Riccardo Bocalon’s 113th minute winner in the second period of injury time gave the third division club a 2-1 win over the Serie A strugglers.
On Thursday Lazio, last season’s beaten finalists, host Udinese and AC Milan are away to Sampdoria.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2015.