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Dumfries goals decide Supercoppa semi-final in Saudi Arabia

Rachel05 mins


Denzel Dumfries struck twice in 13 second-half minutes as Inter ended Atalanta’s 16-game unbeaten run against Italian opposition to reach the 2024 Supercoppa Italiana final at Riyadh’s Al-Awwal Park.

After Dumfries’ acrobatic close-range volley opened the scoring in the 49th minute at Al-Nasr’s home to six-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, the winger scored a spectacular second by rolling a first-time strike onto the post. from the edge of the penalty area.

Atalanta thought they had pulled one back through Anderson’s goal 18 minutes from time, only for a lengthy check by the Assistant Referee to disallow the goal for what appeared to be an offside decision against Charles De Ketelaere.

Inter will face either Juventus or AC Milan, who meet in the second semi-final at the same stadium on Friday (7pm GMT), in Monday’s final at the Kingdom Arena in the Saudi capital.

Inter – Atalanta

A remarkable run of 12 consecutive home wins took Atalanta top of Serie A and into the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia before securing a late draw at Lazio in the league on Saturday. and manager Gian Piero Gasperini may have had reason to fear that their run had ended at the wrong time when

La Dea had not beaten Inter for more than six years and had lost the previous six meetings between the sides, perhaps making it a surprise when the Italian champions had the better chances in the first half.

Goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi saved them with two superb first-time saves from Lautaro Martinez, one of which would have resulted in a Federico Dimarco goal from a rebound had Carnesecchi not made another stop.

Inter’s first goal came after a corner was questionably adjudged to have been deflected back, and there was no doubt about the second when Dumfries drilled in a scorching strike at the height of a counter-attack.

Carnesecchi again denied Martinez to make it 2-0, although Atalanta came tantalizingly close to replying with a minute remaining when Yann Sommer saved headers from Berat Djimsiti and Ademola Lookman in quick succession.

Both players looked set to score from the second rebound but conspired to send the ball over the crossbar to end Atalanta’s slim hopes of a comeback in added time.

Super Cup Final

Eight-time champions Inter have won the last three editions of the Supercoppa and will enter the final with five consecutive clean sheets.

They are yet to beat any of their potential final opponents this season, losing 2-1 to AC Milan in September and drawing 4-4 ​​with Juve in October.



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