Inter Milan will meet Napoli in the Italian Super Cup final after defeating Lazio 3-0 in Friday’s match in Riyadh.
Marcus Thuram and Davide Frattesi scored goals in each half, and Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty four minutes after the interval helped Serie A leaders Inter defeat Lazio at Al-Awwal Park.
Simone Inzaghi’s squad, the current holders, will meet Napoli on Monday night at the same venue, after the Italian champions defeated Fiorentina 3-0 on Thursday.
“It was a great performance; we had a lot of fun out there, like we hadn’t in a while,” Nicolo Barella told Mediaset.
“Everyone wanted the ball today, we had fun and that is important… it’s taken a lot of work to reach this level of quality.”
Inzaghi now has the opportunity to win the Super Cup for a record-breaking fifth time in his career.
If Inter wins on Monday, they would have won their third Super Cup in a row, becoming just the second team to do so after AC Milan in 1992 and 1994.
“We approached the game well, and the lads performed very well. We made it to the final, which was our goal; now we need to recuperate in time for the match against Napoli, which will be very tough,” remarked Inzaghi.
Inter has a close championship fight with Juventus and the Champions League last-16 to deal with in the coming weeks, but Inzaghi unleashed the major weapons to defeat Lazio.
An uninterested-looking Lazio hardly had a kick in a one-sided match that demonstrated why Inter are favourites to lift the Scudetto from Napoli in May.
Inter produced several opportunities, as Barella and Lautaro Martinez both had shots that hit the crossbar in a dominating performance.
Meanwhile, Lazio will return to Rome after failing to create an opening in front of a mainly uninterested audience in Saudi Arabia’s capital.
Napoli’s victory against Fiorentina was played in front of a two-thirds empty stadium, and although Inter and Lazio had larger crowds, there was little passion in the stands.
This season’s Super Cup is the first to include four clubs, with the top two from the previous season’s Serie A and the two Italian Cup finalists competing.