Inter vs AC Milan player ratings: Lautaro Martinez and Francesco Acerbi star for Nerazzurri
Inter 1-0 AC Milan: Lautaro Martinez scored the only goal on the night to send his team to Istanbul
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Inter Milan are the first club set for the 2023 Champions League final, after knocking out city rivals AC Milan with a 1-0 victory in the second leg.
The goalkeepers were the stars of the show in the first half, both making fine stops, but the breakthrough finally came with just 15 minutes to play as Lautaro Martinez hammered in at the near post to seal a 3-0 aggregate win.
Here are the player ratings from the second leg in the San Siro:
Inter Milan
Andre Onana - 7. Big save early on from Diaz. Not too troubled thereafter and always a safe pair of hands.
Matteo Darmian - 7. Dealt comfortably with any threats down his side of the defensive trio.
Francesco Acerbi - 8. Rugged, aggressive and dominant. Beat Giroud in the air every time. A little fortunate not to get caught purposely stepping on an opponent’s foot, though.
Alessandro Bastoni - 7. Solid enough at the back. Wasn’t really called upon to do a huge amount of one-v-one work but his positional play, strength and passing from deep all meant Milan just couldn’t get through easily.
Denzel Dumfries - 7. Again an impressive outing as he covered ground, dragged play upfield and shut down Leao when he needed to.
Nicolo Barella - 7. The usual mix of aggression, bursts into the channel and good work to support the attack. A bit hot-headed, picked up a booking and caused a few ructions.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan - 6. Carried the ball well a few times and got into a couple of dangerous positions but went off injured before half time.
Hakan Calhanoglu - 6. Neat in possession, sensible with his forward runs. Mostly played a protective game in the centre and let Barella break beyond him.
Federico Dimarco - 6. Not his best game on the ball but had plenty of times where he was a good outlet for the team and drove upfield at pace.
Lautaro Martinez - 8. Full of running and clever touches in deep areas. Went close in the first half and then found the breakthrough with a drilled, low shot which beat Maignan at the near post.
Edin Dzeko - 6. Hard-working and had a couple of sighters, but more about his hold-up play than penalty box prowess this time.
Subs: M Brozovic 6, R Lukaku 8, R Gosens 6, J Correa n/a, R Gagliardini n/a
AC Milan
Mike Maignan - 7. Two excellent first-half saves highlighted his shot-stopping ability and good positional work. Beaten near post for the goal but it was a rocket from close range.
Davide Calabria - 5. Started the game well but never really had much impact going forward.
Malick Thiaw - 6. Fared better than Simon Kjaer did in the first leg with better power and speed in the channel, but after a booking had to be replaced.
Fikayo Tomori - 7. Again, better than he played in the first fixture but the damage was already done there. He had a pretty decent outing but still couldn’t help keep a clean sheet.
Theo Hernandez - 6. One of Milan’s biggest underperformers across the two legs, given what he’s capable of. Had an early shot and tracked back well plenty of times but ultimately got nowhere going forward.
Sandro Tonali - 7. One brilliant driving run down the left created Milan’s best early opening. Was the one really trying to drive the team forward for most of the match but too few matched his endeavour.
Rade Krunic - 6. Harder-working than last week but no better with playing forward. Left massive gaps which Barella just rampaged through.
Junior Messias - 5. Like the rest of the attack, the Brazilian had a couple of decent individual moments but nowhere near enough positive team play or combinations.
Brahim Diaz - 5. Massive chance in the opening minutes, on target but saved. Other than the first 15 minutes he was largely anonymous.
Rafael Leao - 5. In and out of the game first half but fired one great strike across the face of goal. Totally marginalised second half and faded away.
Olivier Giroud - 5. No service, no real hold-up play, no chance of beating Acerbi and no threat on goal.
Subs: P Kalulu 5, A Saelemaekers 5, D Origi 5
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