MILAN (AP) — Inter Milan survived a scare to beat Empoli 3-2 in extra time on Wednesday to reach the Italian Cup quarterfinals.
Empoli looked set to surprise in the round of 16, taking the lead with a shot from Nedim Bairami and an own goal from goalkeeper Ionuț Radu after Chilean Alexis Sánchez opened the scoring for Inter.
But Andres Ranocchia equalized in added time to send the game into extra time, with Stefano Sensi scoring the game-winner. Inter will face either Roma or Lecce — the only team that doesn’t play in Serie A and is still alive.
Inter, which leads Serie A, has rotated its team to rest its players. But manager Simone Inzaghi was forced to make a change early on after Argentina’s Joaquin Correa limped off with tears in his eyes from a possible hamstring injury and was replaced by Sanchez after five minutes.
Sánchez came on as a substitute last week, to score the winning goal at the last minute against Juventus in the Italian Super Cup. This time, a Denzel Dumfries cross headed the net in the 13th minute.
Inter had a chance to double their lead, but Empoli began to recover and scored the deserved equalizer when Kristjan Asllani sent the ball back to Bairami, who controlled and fired on goal.
The somersault was completed as former Milan striker Patrick Cutrone’s header bounced off the crossbar and hit Radu’s leg before going into the goal.
Just when it looked like Empoli would spring an upset at the San Siro, Ranocchia equalized with an acrobatic volley from 11 meters from goal.
Sánchez thought he had scored the winning goal with the last shot of the match – as he did with Juventus – but the action was invalidated for offside.
The former Manchester United striker assisted on the goal 14 minutes into extra time. After an error by the Empoli defense, Sánchez assisted Sensi —who had come on as a substitute.
HISTORICAL TRIUMPH
Sassuolo reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their history, beating Cagliari 1-0.
He will now face Juventus.
Abdou Harroui scored the only goal of the match in the 18th minute. It was his first goal in Italian football after arriving in August from Sparta Rotterdam.
Two Cagliari goals were disallowed due to offside positions.
