The Nerazzurri’s home advantage had been nullified before a ball was kicked as San Siro was unavailable due to hosting the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday, so this quarter-final took place 25km away at Monza’s U-Power Stadium. Among those in attendance at the 17,000-capacity arena was Inter fan Infantino, who was in town for the start of the Winter Games.
Only one of Inter’s past 10 goals had come before the half-hour mark heading into this contest and they again started slowly, but left wing-back Carlos Augusto almost improved that record when he crashed a long-range shot against the crossbar in the 20th minute.
On the other flank, 21-year-old Issiaka Kamate was making his full debut for Inter and the wing-back created the opener 10 minutes before the break, as he worked space to send in a perfect cross for an unmarked Ange-Yoan Bonny to head home his seventh goal of the season.
The striker had also scored in the 5-1 thrashing of Venezia in the previous round and another player who found the net that day, Andy Diouf, doubled Inter’s lead two minutes into the second half. The midfielder timed his run perfectly to meet Marcus Thuram’s cut-back and slid home his third goal of the campaign, with each one coming in cup competitions.
Torino’s hopes of reaching their first Coppa Italia semi-final since 1993/94 were fading fast and so they poured forward, with Faustino Anjorin firing straight at Josep Martinez and Nikola Vlasic drilling just wide.
They were rewarded when they halved the deficit just before the hour mark, as Marcus Holmgren Pedersen’s cross looped up for Sandro Kulenovic to score his first goal for the club on his full debut, having signed on loan from Dinamo Zagreb last week.
The tie was alive again and Matteo Prati thought he had completed the comeback 16 minutes from time, but he had strayed offside before heading past Martinez.
Vlasic curled a late shot wide but that was as close as Torino came to an equaliser, as Inter made it eight successive H2H victories to book a semi-final against Como or Napoli, while Torino are now winless in 14 games (D1, L13) against the Nerazzurri.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Andy Diouf (Inter Milan)
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