Former Rossoneri coach Arrigo Sacchi believes that Inter’s 3-0 win over AC Milan in the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg was fully deserved.

Speaking to Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published in today’s print edition, Sacchi stressed that the Nerazzurri had looked completely dominant in terms of their control of space.

Inter scored two goals without reply in a whirlwind first half that saw them look to force the issue by trying to outrun the Rossoneri and always have positive passing options available.

This approach meant that Milan virtually never had time to settle into a strong defensive shape and that spaces were always opened up for the Nerazzurri who were good value for their two-goal advantage going into halftime.

As the match wore on Inter adopted a more defensive posture and attacked mostly through fast breaks, but their city rivals could not put them under the same kind of pressure and so they held out for the clean sheet before sealing the win with a third goal late on.

“At a certain point, to tell the truth, it seemed like a complete mismatch,” Sacchi said. “With their approach, Inter have an advantage over Milan, because they can take advantage of the higher technical quality and greater experience.”

“Milan only work if they play compact, as a team, a true collective, then they can have their say,” he added.

“Otherwise there’s no pressing, there’s no organization, there is no synergy between positions and individual players,” he added. “The Rossoneri got scattered all over the pitch, they showed their limits.”

Sacchi reiterated that “On a technical level and in terms of experience, there’s no match between the Nerazzurri and the Rossoneri.”

“Inter are a great team and are certainly closer than Milan to reaching the top European level,” he added, “also due to the investments made. But the Nerazzurri also need to improve and become more of a collective.”

On which Inter players impressed him most Sacchi said that “Saying Lautaro is obvious. But I also liked Brozovic very much, always skilled in controlling the game, and Perisic who runs like a train.”

As to whether he expects this result to effect the Scudetto race, he said that “I don’t think so. The success will give strength to Inter, but they had already recovered after their period of bad form.”

“I don’t think the defeat will affect the morale of Milan,” the former coach added.