A sensational strike by Marko Arnautovic helped send Inter Milan into the Coppa Italia semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over Lazio.
Inter’s much-changed side had to wait until the 39th minute to break the deadlock at San Siro, but it was worth the wait as Arnautovic let fly from 25 yards after a corner had only been partially cleared to score a special fourth goal of the campaign.
Hakan Calhanoglu’s spot-kick late on set up a two-legged last-four clash with city rivals AC Milan.
Insane goal by Marko Arnautović!!! 🤯
The Inter Milan man opens the scoring with a spectacular volley from outside the box 👏 pic.twitter.com/vj7cdP6GOG
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) February 25, 2025
Simone Inzaghi shuffled his pack from Saturday’s 1-0 win over Genoa, which helped Inter return to the Serie A summit, with Alessandro Bastoni and Lautaro Martinez dropped to the bench.
Only 24 minutes were on the clock when Matteo Darmian limped off to be replaced by Denzel Dumfries and after a spate of yellow cards, the opener arrived six minutes before half-time.
Federico Dimarco’s corner was headed away but only as far as the unmarked Arnautovic and the former West Ham forward volleyed home a sumptuous strike to give Inter the upper hand.
It remained 1-0 at the break with chances few and far between, though Josep Martinez was forced to save a low strike by Gustav Isaksen.
Isaksen continued to be a threat and after he had been denied again, Mattia Zaccagni fired straight at Inter’s deputy goalkeeper.
Pedro, Nuno Tavares and Tijjani Noslin were introduced for the visitors soon after in an attempt to find a way back into the contest.
Inzaghi responded with Calhanoglu among those sent on and the Turkish midfielder sealed Inter’s passage through to the next round in the 77th minute.
Samuel Gigot brought down home substitute Joaquin Correa and Calhanoglu made no mistake from 12 yards to keep Inter on course to win the treble.
