By Aiwu Esele
Edin Dzeko celebrating his opener with team mates.
Two early quick goals was all Inter Milan needed to ride over local rivals and host, AC Milan in the first leg of the UEFA Champions league semi – final at San Siro on Tuesday night.
Edin Dzeko opened scoring in 8 mins of play with a volley, assisted by Calhanoglu. Celebration of that needed early cracker was yet to die down when Henrikh Mkhitaryan put a Dimarco assist behind the net in the 11 minute. A third would have happened if VAR had confirmed referee’s call for a penalty in the 36th minutes of the first half one-sided encounter as AC Milan wasted time to get into the derby at San Siro, much later in the second half.
Before a huge, supportive home crowd, that was a tactical error which they paid for dearly in this first Champions League Milan derby since 2005.
Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana was on a holiday with little to do except in the 90+2 minutes when he made his first proper save from a Tomaso Pobega shot in from the edge of the box and straight at him.
Inter has a big advantage going into the return leg in a week’s time with a possibility of playing the final with either Real Madrid or Manchester City who both ended their tie with a draw on Tuesday, on June 10.
For the record, football history says Edin Dzeko, 37, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 34, are the second and sixth oldest scorers in Champions League semi-final history respectively.
Ex,-Man United Ryan Giggs, 37, is top with Phillip Cocu, ex- PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, Xabi Alonso, an ex-Bayern Munich defender and Karim Benzema of Real Madrid, twice, all doing it at 34.
However, Dzeko is the seventh player to score 20 Champions League goals after turning 30, after Cristiano Ronaldo (68), Robert Lewandowski (46), Karim Benzema (37), Lionel Messi (35), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (24) and Didier Drogba (23).
