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On Wednesday, the semi-finals of the Italian Cup began - victories with a minimal margin were achieved in the first matches by the clubs playing at home in Milan, "Inter" and "Palermo", defeating the teams of "Udinese" and "Roma" respectively. Meanwhile, in the postponed "Serie A" match between "Cagliari" and "Fiorentina", no goals were scored.
After three other teams participating in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup withdrew from the UEFA Cup, the only team remaining to compete in all three "fronts" was Milan's "Inter", who welcomed the crisis-stricken "Udinese" team at their stadium, where the new coach Giovanni Galeone made his debut.
At the "San Siro" stadium, the home team started the match actively and finally broke through in the 20th minute - after a team combination involving several players, Obafemi Martins passed the ball to his teammate Santiago Solari, who scored the first goal of his career for the club.
After the break, both team's goalkeepers had to work, and "Udinese" had the best opportunity to equalize the score in the 66th minute, when Milan's goalkeeper Julio Cesar failed to stop Paulo Barreto, but the opponent's forward tripped and failed to score an open goal.
Later, "Udinese" goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis saved the goal from several dangerous attacks by "Inter" in a row, and on the other side of the field, after a corner kick, Jose Vidigal's header flew over the goal. "Inter" won and gained a one-goal advantage before the return match on April 12.
In the other semi-final, in the wet conditions of the Sicilian "Renzo Barbera" stadium, "Palermo" played against the "Roma" club, and in the 47th second, the guests from the Italian capital took the lead after Edgar Alvarez's pass led to a shot from Simone Perrotta.
However, just three minutes later, due to a gross error by two "Roma" players, the score became equal - goalkeeper Gianluca Curci failed to catch Massimo Mutarelli's shot near his goal, and defender Cesare Bovo passed it directly to Franco Brienza, who equalized.
The guests' defense did not perform well, and midway through the second half after a long "Palermo" attack, a second goal came after Denis Godeas's pass was scored by M. Mutarelli while falling. "Palermo" won, but having scored an away goal, "Roma" will hope to retaliate in the return match in the capital in three weeks.
On Wednesday, in Sardinia, the postponed match between "Cagliari" and "Fiorentina" was also played - the match that started on March 12th was interrupted after 29 minutes due to poor weather conditions and very strong wind. These matches became historical as it was the first time that interrupted "Serie A" matches were not replayed, but extended from the minute they ended.
Interestingly, in the previous match, the injured "Fiorentina" attacking leader Luca Toni could not play, this time he ran onto the field and in the 40th minute, a penalty kick was awarded to him after a foul by Joe Bizera on the "Cagliari" goal. Earning it, the forward himself took the shot, but goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti saved his attempt.
In the remaining part of the match, both teams failed to score, so they had to share a point each. "Cagliari," with 31 points, tied with the 14th-placed "Reggina" club, while "Fiorentina," in the fourth position, increased their advantage over the "Roma" team to two points.
Italian Cup semi-final results:
1 - 0 20` [1 - 0] Santiago Solari
2 - 1 1` [0 - 1] Simone Perrotta 4` [1 - 1] Franco Brienza 69` [2 - 1] Massimo Mutarelli
Italian championship 29th round match result:
0 - 0
