Inter Milan 0-1 Napoli: Fabian Ruiz goal gives Napoli crucial away goal

Published on: 12 February 2020

Fabian Ruiz - out of shot - curled in a brilliant individual goal to put Napoli in charge of the tie

Fabian Ruiz's fine goal gave Napoli the edge in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter Milan.

Ruiz curled a superb away goal from the edge of the area to send Antonio Conte's Serie A leaders to only their second domestic defeat of the season.

Former Chelsea boss Conte was booked during the second half as Inter failed to fashion any clear chances, and they must now win in Naples next month.

AC Milan face Juventus on Thursday at the San Siro in the second semi-final.

Inter came from 2-0 down to beat rivals AC at the weekend and go top of the table but they could not find a late rally on this occasion.

Ashley Young, Alexis Sanchez and Christian Eriksen were all absent from the starting line-up and Dries Mertens and Piotr Zielinski both went close for Napoli in the first half.

Away fans from the Naples region were banned from this match - a consequence of an incident in December 2018, when an Inter fan died of his injuries after being knocked down by a van amid violence before a match between the sides.

Despite that ban, there were still plenty of Milan-based Napoli supporters inside to celebrate the winner from Ruiz.

The midfielder played an elegant one-two on the edge of the box, and then bent a left-footed strike around Daniele Padelli and into the top corner.

Eriksen and Sanchez were introduced as Inter tried to respond, with on-loan Manchester United forward Sanchez failing to get a shot away when well placed and Romelu Lukaku, another former Premier League striker, seeing a scrambled effort well saved.

Eriksen then had a shot deflected wide but Napoli held on to take the lead into the second leg, which takes place on 5 March.

    Line-ups Match Stats

Line-ups

Inter Milan

    27Padelli

    37SkriniarBooked at 3minsSubstituted forD'Ambrosioat 45'minutes

    6de Vrij

    95Bastoni

    11MosesSubstituted forSánchezat 74'minutes

    23Barella

    77Brozovic

    12SensiSubstituted forEriksenat 66'minutes

    34Biraghi

    9Lukaku

    10Martínez

Substitutes

    1Handanovic

    2Godín

    7Sánchez

    8Vecino

    13Ranocchia

    15Young

    20Valero

    24Eriksen

    33D'Ambrosio

    35Stankovic

    46Berni

    87Candreva

Napoli

    25OspinaBooked at 85mins

    22Di Lorenzo

    44ManolasBooked at 51mins

    19Maksimovic

    6Mário RuiBooked at 77mins

    8Ruiz

    4Demme

    20ZielinskiSubstituted forMarques Loureiroat 82'minutes

    7CallejónSubstituted forPolitanoat 78'minutes

    14MertensSubstituted forMilikat 73'minutes

    12Elmas

Substitutes

    1Meret

    5Marques Loureiro

    9Llorente

    11Lozano

    13Luperto

    21Politano

    24Insigne

    26Koulibaly

    27Karnezis

    68Lobotka

    99Milik

Referee:

Gianpaolo Calvarese

Match Stats

Home TeamInter MilanAway TeamNapoli

Possession

Home55%

Away45%

Shots

Home13

Away5

Shots on Target

Home4

Away2

Corners

Home6

Away5

Fouls

Home12

Away8

Source: bbc.com

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