Inter made short work of Cagliari to reach the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, winning 3-0 including a Marcelo Brozovic stunner.
The winners of this Round of 16 tie go through to face Napoli or Verona in the next round.
The Sardinians had a strong start at San Siro, as Gary Medel scuffed a clearance on a free kick, allowing Simone Benedetti to blast over the bar. At the other end, Geoffrey Kondogbia’s snapshot was comfortably smothered.
Inter made short work of Cagliari to reach the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, winning 3-0 including a Marcelo Brozovic stunner.
The winners of this Round of 16 tie go through to face Napoli or Verona in the next round.
The Sardinians had a strong start at San Siro, as Gary Medel scuffed a clearance on a free kick, allowing Simone Benedetti to blast over the bar. At the other end, Geoffrey Kondogbia’s snapshot was comfortably smothered.
Jonathan Biabiany’s give and go with Marcelo Brozovic sent him clear, but Alessio Cragno ran off his line to intercept.
Cragno had to be alert to palm a Rodrigo Palacio diving header off the line, but could do nothing when La Trenza met a deflected Juan Jesus cross from six yards.
Niccolò Giannetti ran on to a Davide Di Gennaro through ball and forced a tough one-handed Juan Pablo Carrizo save one-on-one.
Palacio got to Martin Montoya’s volleyed cross just a fraction of a second too late at the back post, while Giannetti fired over and on the stroke of half-time Carrizo palmed an Alberto Cerri rocket out from under the bar.
Straight after the restart Cagliari almost equalised, as Fabio Pisacane’s glancing header turned a Di Gennaro free kick on to the base of the far post.
Gary Medel nodded inches past the upright, while Di Gennaro’s poor back-pass gave Manaj a chance, but he made up for it by charging down the Brozovic follow-up.
Brozovic secured the victory with an absolutely stunning strike, a replica of the one he netted against Udinese at the weekend. He cut in from the left and curled a remote-controlled right-foot finish into the far top corner.
Inter’s third had a lot to do with the Croatian midfielder, as his strike bounced off the base of the upright and Ivan Perisic turned in the rebound from a tight angle.
Dodo made his comeback almost nine months after suffering a serious knee injury. Carrizo also rushed out to deny Diego Farias a consolation goal and Cragno performed a splendid save on Yuto Nagatomo's close-range volley.
Inter 3-0 Cagliari
Scorers: Palacio 24 (I), Brozovic 71 (I), Perisic 81 (I)
Inter: Carrizo; Montoya, Juan Jesus, Medel (Gnoukouri 77), D’Ambrosio; Nagatomo, Kondogbia, Brozovic, Biabiany (Dodo 85); Manaj, Palacio (Perisic 73)
Cagliari: Cragno; Pisacane, Benedetti, Krajnc, Murru; Deiola, Di Gennaro (Farias 73), Tello (Colombatto 50); João Pedro, Giannetti (Melchiorri 77), Cerri
Ref: Russo