Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez both scored twice as Inter Milan hammered Shakhtar Donetsk in Dusseldorf to set up a Europa League final showdown with Sevilla. Inter Milan’s 5-0 win is the biggest margin of victory ever in a single UEFA Cup/ Europa League semi-final game.
Lautaro Martinez struck his first in the 19th minute, heading in from Nicolo Barella’s cross after the midfielder had been gifted possession from a dire attempted clearance by Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov.
Shakhtar should have been on level terms midway through the second half but Junior Moraes wasted a glorious chance moments before Danilo D’Ambrosio extended Inter’s lead.
Danilo D’Ambrosio rose highest in the area to head home Marcelo Brozovic’s corner just after the hour before Martinez side-footed in his second to seal the win and Romelu Lukaku came to the party with two neat finishes of his own.
Former Manchester United striker Lukaku has now scored in 10 straight Europa League games and has 33 goals for the season. Lautaro Martínez and Romelu Lukaku are the first duo to score 20+ goals each in a single season for Inter Milan since Adriano and Obafemi Martins in the 2004-05 campaign.
Shakhtar Donetsk, who were looking to reach their second European final, having won the Uefa Cup in 2009, will surely go home disappointed and with regrets after failing to show any urgency on the night. The Ukrainian champions had beaten Benfica, Wolfsburg and Basel to reach this stage and were 11 games unbeaten coming into the tie, but limply bow out.
Antonio Conte, who was sacked by Chelsea in July 2018, has taken a squad containing discarded Manchester United trio Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Ashley Young, as well as ex-Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen and on-loan Chelsea wing-back Victor Moses, and forged a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
One of those parts, though for Conte, is having a truly stellar campaign with Inter Milan to prove all his doubters wrong and he expressed his satisfaction after the match;
“We played a very good game and I’m very happy for my players. They worked very hard every day so to have this answer from my players is fantastic. For me, it is great satisfaction.
“I know very well it’s difficult to forget. Inter Milan was a fantastic team. Now, after 10 years, we have the possibility to lift a trophy. This is a great satisfaction for me and the players.
“We want to give that to the fans. We have to play against a strong team. Sevilla know this competition very well. We have a lot of players who are playing for the first time in this competition. But we have enthusiasm, we have strength and we want to give satisfaction to our fans.”
Inter head into their 10th European final unbeaten in eleven games and full of confidence. They will face five-time Europa League winners Sevilla in the Europa League final at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne on Friday – kick-off is at 8pm. The match will be held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
