Nicolo Barella was compared to a gladiator in the Italian media today following his performance in Inter’s Coppa Italia win over AC Milan.
Tuttosport’s print edition gave the midfielder a rating of 7/10, the joint-highest alongside match-winner Christian Eriksen, for his 90-minute display at San Siro on Tuesday.
Barella earned the penalty from which Romelu Lukaku equalised with 20 minutes left but was also praised for his fighting spirit throughout the quarter-final tie.
“He had a gladiatorial approach to the game and took two blows from Theo Hernandez and Ante Rebic that would have knocked anybody else out,” the Turin-based publication wrote.
Aleksandar Kolarov was said to be Inter’s worst performing player last night, being blamed for Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s opening goal on the half-hour.
In addition to this the Serbian took several poor free-kicks, despite being known as a dead-ball specialist, and was given a rating of just 5/10.
Matteo Darmian was not much better than the former Roma defender with the Italian being rated 5.5/10, while Arturo Vidal was rated 6/10 along with Samir Handanovic, Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij and Lautaro Martinez.
Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic, Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku were all rated 6.5/10, as was Antonio Conte after ‘deservedly’ knocking out Inter’s city rivals.
Inter will find out later on today who they will face in the Coppa Italia semi-finals, when Juventus host SPAL.