Onana Keeps 8th Champions League Clean Sheet : Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana kept his eighth clean sheet of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League season against AC Milan on Tuesday night at Inter Milan completed back to back wins over their city rivals to reach the Champions League final.
The 2023 final will taken place at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in Turkey on 10th June 2023. The team managed by former Lazio head coach Simone Inzaghi will meet either Manchester City or Real Madrid as the Serie A side seek for their fourth European honor.
It is the first time in history that AC Milan failed to score a single goal against their city rivals in four successive meetings.
Despite the San Siro being predominantly filled with Nerazzurri shirts, it was Milan who got off to the better start on this occasion.
Théo Hernandez came agonisingly close with an audacious strike, but Brahim Díaz didn’t show enough conviction to beat André Onana after brilliant work from Sandro Tonali to tee him up, as Stefano Pioli’s side pursued the goal they so desperately needed.
Inter stood firm against the Rossoneri blitz and started to threaten with their own forays forward, although Henrikh Mkhitaryan fired over from Edin Džeko’s cutback.
With the two teams going toe-to-toe, Rafael Leão came tantalisingly close to marking his return from injury with the most vital of goals as the winger raced behind Matteo Darmian but eventually dragged his shot agonisingly wide, before Džeko’s header brought an incredible save out of Mike Maignan and Lautaro Martínez soon struck off target.
Even though their two-goal lead was intact, the Nerazzurri were still dealt a blow before the break, as Mkhitaryan was forced off injured.
It surprisingly took until the 56th minute for Clément Turpin to hand out his first booking of the night, doing so when Malick Thiaw cynically halted Martínez as Inter emerged from the restart strongly.
In a city revered for fashion, it was Inter’s grit and organisation that kept Milan out, giving Martínez the platform to smash a shot past Maignan’s outstretched hand to put Inter ahead on the night and take the tie out of sight for Milan.
Onana has been a big part of the success of Inter Milan this season with his eight shoutouts in the continental competition.
The former Ajax FC number one custodian retired from international football following the completion of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar where he clashed with Indomitable Lions boss Rigobert Song.
However according reports from the country of Samuel Eto’o , the government of Cameroon is working behind the scenes to convince the goalkeeper to come out of retirement in order to rejoin the national team.
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