Inter wins the first leg of the Milan derby semifinal thanks to goals from Dzeko and Mkhitaryan.
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Aljazeera
The Nerazzurri are on the verge of making their first appearance in the Champions League final since 2010 after Inter Milan defeated AC Milan 2-0 in the first leg of their semifinal matchup.
Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan placed Inter well in control with two goals in three minutes, and the visitors had more chances to score in a commanding first half on Wednesday.
Tuesday is the second leg. The victor will go up against Real Madrid or Manchester City, who tied 1-1 in their first leg.
Rafael Leao, a crucial attacker for Milan, was not there since he was still dealing with a thigh injury that occurred over the weekend.
The semifinal of the Italian "Euroderby" was played in a tumultuous environment at San Siro.
Although it was anticipated that the game would be cagey and close, Inter got off to a great start by taking the lead in the eighth minute. Dzeko was able to sneak in front of Davide Calabria and loop a volley into the top right corner after Hakan Calhanoglu sent in a corner from the left.
Three minutes later, Inter increased their advantage. Lautaro Martinez made a superb decision to leave Federico Dimarco's low ball open for Mkhitaryan to lift over Mike Maignan.
Milan has only given up one goal in its previous six games in the Champions League.
Amazingly, five minutes later Inter came close to adding a third goal, but Calhanoglu's long shot hit the right post.
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The Milan players were stunned, but they slowly recovered. On the half-hour mark, they made their first effort at scoring, but Calabria missed the side netting.
After evaluating the incident on the pitch-side monitor, the referee reversed his decision to give Inter a penalty for a foul by Simon Kjaer on Martinez.
After the half, Milan got better and was shooting toward the finish in front of a sea of red and black fans.
In the 63rd minute, the Rossoneri should have equalized, but Sandro Tonali's shot hit the left post's base instead.
