news-engine

Inter Milan beat fellow Italian giants Juventus 2-1 in front of more than 50,000 fans on a memorable Saturday night in Perth. It might have been a pre-season friendly but the two Serie A clubs rolled out close to full-strength sides as their preparations for the 2026-27 campaign ramped up at Optus Stadium. Inter were more familiar with the venue than their Derby d’Italia opponents, having played there against cross-town rivals AC Milan on Wednesday, and perhaps it was those extra few days in Western Australia that gave Inter the edge as they took an early lead on Saturday night. Federico Dimarco! He finishes the work from Bonny to give Inter the lead. Watch on 7plus: https://t.co/nXhZQJn7Fz pic.twitter.com/7dgMsZzgEM Federico Dimarco, one of the most recognisable members of the squad, opened the scoring by turning the ball home after excellent work down the left wing by Ivory Coast international Ange-Yoan Bonny. Inter doubled their lead around the hour mark when another player starting their second season with the club, Andy Diouf, saw his shot only partially saved by Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio, who could only watch on as the ball trickled over the line to make it 2-0. Juventus pulled a late goal back through Portuguese winger Francisco Conceição but Inter held on to record a morale-boosting win over one of their biggest rivals for the Serie A title, with the league season now just two weeks away. There was world-class quality across the pitch from both teams, with Juve starting big name stars such as Manuel Locatelli, Jonathan David and Douglas Luiz, plus two of Australia’s opponents at the recently-completed World Cup, in USA’s Weston McKennie and Turkiye’s Kenan Yildiz. Inter weren’t short on star-power either, naming Italian stars Dimarco, Nicolo Barella and Pio Esposito in their starting XI, along with Turkiye captain Hakan Calhanoglu – another player Socceroos fans are much more familiar with after the World Cup – and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and World Cup winner Benjamin Pavard. Both sides had sent on virtually entirely new teams after 20 minutes of the second half, which took a bit of the life out of the game, but it didn’t seem to perturb too many of the 50,000-plus fans that packed into Optus Stadium to celebrate Italian football. There’s one more game left of the Calcio Italiano series, with Juventus sticking around to take on Palermo on Tuesday night.