Lazio were clearly overwhelmed in their Supercoppa Italiana semi-final clash with Inter, falling in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat.
The Biancocelesti had been looking strong ahead of their trip to Saudi Arabia, picking up five consecutive wins across Serie A and the Coppa Italia against teams like Roma, Udinese and Frosinone.
Inter have looked almost flawless this term and their strong work has put them in pole position in the race for silverware, taking them top of the Serie A table and the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Both sides started their usual stars in the Supercoppa clash in Riyadh, with players like Lautaro Martinez, Hakan Calhanoglu, Ciro Immobile and Felipe Anderson are kicking off proceedings at Al Awal Park.
Inter got off to a strong start in the match and took the lead after just 18 minutes, when a beautiful piece of build-up play allowed the ball to be whipped into Federico Dimarco, whose deft touch perfectly set up Marcus Thuram. The Frenchman poked the ball past Ivan Provedel, giving his side a 1-0 lead.
The Nerazzurri kept up the pressure for the remainder of the first half, endlessly probing forward, but the Biancocelesti held strong enough to limit the damage. They were the happier of the two sides when the half-time break came, with Simone Inzaghi’s side clearly in the driving seat.
Only minutes into the second half, a clumsy foul from Pedro on Lautaro gifted Inter a penalty. Hakan Calhanoglu stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards out, easily dispatching the spot kick to double the Nerazzurri’s lead.
Lazio looked lost after this and offered essentially no threat going forward, allowing Inzaghi’s side to cruise to victory in Saudi Arabia.
In the dying minutes of the match, a misplaced pass from Luis Alberto allowed Inter to break on the counter. Henrikh Mkhitaryan burst forward and played the ball across to a charging Davide Frattesi, who blasted the ball past Provedel to close out the Nerazzurri’s victory.
It was a dominating showing from Inter in their Supercoppa Italiana clash with Lazio and they progressed to the final as deserved winners, leaving Maurizio Sarri’s side with nothing but regrets.
