Inter are through to the Coppa Italia quarter-finals after defeating Sampdoria 2-0 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Wednesday night.
New signing Xherdan Shaqiri gave the home side the lead, before Mauro Icardi doubled the scoreline to seal a win for Roberto Mancini’s men.
The Nerazzurri started the game on the front foot with Xherdan Shaqiri and Mateo Kovacic combining well in the opening minutes.
Inter’s early pressure was rewarded as Shaqiri’s neat pass found Mauro Icardi bearing down on goal, the Argentine striker was bundled to the ground by Nenad Krsticic leaving referee Paolo Tagliavento with no choice but to send off the Serbian.
Sampdoria settled into the game despite Krsticic’s sending off, restricting the Nerazzurri to half chances with Sergio Romero equal to everything Inter had to offer in the visitors goal.
Pawel Wszolek presented Mauro Icardi with the chance to open the scoring from 12 yards with ten minutes of the first half remaining, when he fouled Dodo inside the box.
Icardi’s well struck penalty was superbly saved low to his right by Romero as the game entered the interval scoreless.
Romero was finally beaten with twenty minutes remaining as Shaqiri found Lukas Podolski at the edge of the penalty area, the German forward controlled the ball before neatly back heeling into Shaqiri’s path, and the Swiss forward made no mistake with a well taken left footed finish.
Sampdoria were reduced to nine men moments later as Wszolek piked up a second booking for a foul on Zdravko Kuzmanovic.
Icardi doubled Inter’s advantage in the closing stages as he intercepted Lorenzo De Silvestri’s back pass before rounding Romero and passing the ball into an empty net.
Inter will now face the winner of Thursday’s match between Napoli and Udinese at the quarter final stage.
