Denzel Dumfries’ brace booked Inter Milan a berth in Monday’s Italian Super Cup final following a 2-0 win over Serie A leaders Atalanta in Saudi Arabia.
Last season’s Scudetto winners probably should have taken the lead before the break, when captain Lautaro Martinez squandered several chances.
But Dumfries scored a stylish opener four minutes after the restart, then bagged a second just after the hour in front of an Inter-majority crowd at Al-Awwal Park in Riyadh.
Inter are now one win away from drawing level with Juventus – who play AC Milan in their semi-final on Friday night – on a record nine titles in the competition.
Simone Inzaghi named an unchanged starting XI from Saturday’s 3-0 Serie A victory over Cagliari, but it was a different story for opposite number Gian Piero Gasperini, who made six changes from their 1-1 Lazio stalemate.
Inter enjoyed a flurry of chances inside the first minute, defender Odilon Kossounou twice intervening to shut down Martinez before in-form Atalanta keeper Marco Carnesecchi dove to deny Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
At the other end, Giorgio Scalvini missed a big chance when he tried to nod home from a cross, and perhaps regretted not taking more time after realizing he was completely unmarked at point-blank range.
Carnesecchi made a double save to deny Martinez then an off-balance Federico Dimarco from the rebound and the Inter skipper fired wide from the resulting corner, then over the crossbar with his next effort later on.
Dumfries was through on goal late in the period, calling for a penalty after getting tangled up with Matteo Ruggeri, but a VAR check revealed the referee was right not to intervene.
Inzaghi made just one change after the restart, introducing Mehdi Taremi in place of Marcus Thuram.
And Dumfries had the ball in the back of the net four minutes later with an overhead kick following a corner, the opener standing despite Atalanta’s protests that the Dutchman had interfered with Scalvini in the build-up.
Gasperini made a triple swap in the 56th minute, but Dumfries made it 2-0 just as Atalanta – sparked back to life by the introduction of Ademola Lookman – were beginning to raise their threat level.
Dimarco squared pass skipped past intended target Taremi and two Atalanta players before reaching the advancing Dumfries, who blasted his second of the match under the crossbar in the 61st minute.
Atalanta substitute Ederson thought he had clawed one back in the 72nd minute, but it was ruled out following a lengthy VAR check that determined Charles De Ketelaere was offside in the build-up.
There was a timely intervention from Marco Palestra to deny Martinez a chance to tap in a third, and Inter clung on for the clean sheet, despite Atalanta piling bodies into their penalty area deep in stoppage time.
