Wesley Sneijder fired home a freekick to give Inter Milan a 1-0 win
over Livorno in the Italian Cup Wednesday that seals Inter's place
in the quarterfinals.
The Dutchman curled a freekick past Livorno goalkeeper
Francesco Benussi in the 61st minute after Mario Balotelli had been
fouled.
In the quarterfinals Inter will play the winner of the match
between Juventus and Napoli that takes place on Jan.13.
"We deserved to win," Inter coach Jose Mourinho said. "We
took the match seriously, we had no problems, kept our shape and
were controlled in defense.
"We had a couple of early chances come back off the post and
any team that has five or six goalscoring chances deserves to win."
Inter dominated the game in the first half.
Midfielder Dejan Stankovic had two good chances early on. He
shot straight at Benussi with the first, whilst the second came
back off the post.
Midfielder Sneijder became the second player to hit the post,
when his freekick in the 32nd rebounded to safety.
Stankovic had another chance in the 36th, but shot over and
Balotelli shot wide from a good position two minutes before the
break.
After halftime Livorno again did the utmost to frustrate
Inter, but the hosts made a breakthrough in the 61st when Sneijder
found the net.
A minute later David Suazo wasted a chance to double the
lead. Sneijder put him clear behind Livorno's defense, but Benussi
came off his line to smother the shot.
Livorno failed to test Inter and Federico Dionisi's weak shot
in the 76th that Inter keeper Francesco Toldo comfortably saved was
the closest Serse Cosmi's team came to scoring.
Substitute Diego Milito wasted a great chance late on to make
the result safe. The Argentine rounded Benussi but shot wide.
"I'm happy," Mourinho said. "We didn't have many problems and
we are in the next round."
