Inter Milan had few problems in finishing off CSKA Moscow and advancing to the Champions League semi-finals.
Mourinho's side stroll into semis with 1-0 win in Russia
Inter Milan had few problems in finishing off CSKA Moscow and making it through to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Jose Mourinho's side only had a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg but Wesley Sneijder struck after just six minutes in Russia to secure a 2-0 aggregate victory.
From the moment the Dutch midfielder rifled a powerful free-kick through CSKA's defensive wall and past a despairing Igor Akinfeev, the outcome appeared in little doubt.
Inter coped well with the artificial surface of the Luzhniki Stadium and showed as they did against Chelsea in the last round that they were adept at protecting leads.
CSKA battled hard in the first half but their fading hopes were effectively extinguished when substitute Chidi Odiah was sent off for a second bookable offence early in the second period.
Bright start
CSKA made a bright start and had an early effort on goal from Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda, who dragged a long-range effort wide.
But Inter landed an early body blow as they opened the scoring, with Sneijder drilling a low free-kick past a leaping wall and fooling Akinfeev.
That goal meant the hosts needed to score three goals to have any chance of going through and Inter went close to getting their second goal of the night as Goran Pandev had a sight of goal, but Akinfeev comfortably held his shot.
Conceding the goal prompted an early response from CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky as he hauled off defender Vasili Berezutsky after just 13 minutes to replace him with Odiah.
Honda then fired wide with two optimistic free-kick efforts from distance, but the hosts did go close to grabbing a goal back when Tomas Necid fired agonisingly wide after controlling Odiah's pass in the 24th minute.
The hosts then carved out another chance in the 34th minute as they broke quickly through Mark Gonzalez, but Alan Dzagoev made a mess of the finish, scuffing the ball infield as he drove into the box.
And that miss was almost instantly punished as Sneijder's excellent lofted ball played Diego Milito in, but the forward could only hit his shot at Akinfeev.
Odiah then saw Julio Cesar tip his shot round the post at the other end, but the Italian champions looked comfortable soaking up any CSKA pressure.
Dismissed
And things got even worse for the Russian side when Odiah was dismissed just three minutes into the second half as his rash lunge for a loose ball saw him bring down Samuel Eto'o to earn himself a second yellow card.
But they continued to push forward in search of a goal and midfielder Gonzalez had two chances in the space of a minute.
The Chile international firstly smashed a half-volley that Cesar did well to hang on to, before dragging another effort wide from the edge of the box.
With 20 minutes to go Mourinho's side were dominating possession, sweeping the ball around at will, and Sneijder and Dejan Stankovic both forced Akinfeev into action with powerful efforts, and the keeper did superbly to keep out Milito's effort with the Argentina striker through on goal.
The game rather petered out from that point, although Eto'o just failed to add a second as he shot over the bar in the final minutes.
| CSKA Moscow |
Team Statistics |
Internazionale |
| 0 |
Goals |
1 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 2 |
Shots on Target |
7 |
| 10 |
Shots off Target |
6 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
4 |
| 3 |
Corners |
2 |
| 14 |
Fouls |
13 |
| 0 |
Offsides |
4 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 1 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 82.4 |
Passing Success |
85.4 |
| 15 |
Tackles |
19 |
| 86.7 |
Tackles Success |
100 |
| 49.5 |
Possession |
50.5 |
| 55.7 |
Territorial Advantage |
44.3 |
|
