AC Milan, trailing 2-0, overthrew its great rival Inter Milan, who remained on three consecutive victories in the Italian Super Cup, to win 3-2 in the final of the 2024 edition on Monday in Riyadh.
Inter, winner of the event in 2021, 2022 and 2023, seemed to be heading towards easy success thanks to their Argentine captain Lautaro Martinez (45+2), who had scored only one goal in two months, and to Mehdi Taremi, established in place of Marcus Thuram, left to rest (47).
But as he had already done in the semi-final against Juventus Turin who led 1-0 before losing 2-1, Milan showed a completely different face after the break.
Théo Hernandez gave the Rossoneri hope with a direct free kick (52nd). The team led for the second time by Sergio Conceiçao took the upper hand and logically equalized thanks to Christian Pulisic (80th).
Tammy Abraham offered victory in added time (90+3) to his team, crowned for the eighth time in its history in the Italian Super Cup, one step behind the Juventus Turin record (9), for the first time since 2016 and tied with its neighbor in the prize list of this tournament created in 1988.
First pitting the Italian champion against the Cup winner in one match, the format changed in 2023 to four teams with the integration of the vice-champion and the Cup finalist.
AC Milan, behind in the league (8th, seventeen points from the lead, with two games in hand) had not won a title since their championship coronation in 2022.
Le Real Madrid s’amuse
Real Madrid easily qualified for the knockout stages of the Copa del Rey by beating modest Deportivo Minera (4th division) 5-0.
Federico Valverde (5th), Eduardo Camavinga (13th) and Arda Güler (28th) found the target in the first half hour. Luka Modric ten minutes after the restart then Güler again, two minutes from the end of the match, added to the score.
Carlo Ancelotti had left several of his usual starters on the bench to preserve them before the Spanish Super Cup, scheduled for this week in Saudi Arabia.
Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr only came on in the second half.
For Deportivo Minera, the adventure comes to an abrupt end. In the previous round, at the beginning of December, the club eliminated Alavés, another resident of La Liga but much less prestigious than Real, on penalties.
On Saturday, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid had also overcome the obstacle of the 1/16 finals, just like the defending champion, Athletic Bilbao, who nevertheless had to go through penalties to eliminate Logronés (3rd div .)
The round of 16 is scheduled between January 14 and 16. The draw will take place on Wednesday.
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