AC Milan lost 1-0 to Inter Milan at a near-empty San Siro stadium last night, but still cruised into the Italian Cup semi-finals with a 5-1 aggregate victory. Marco Branca prodded the ball home in the 31st minute of the second leg, but Inter finished with only 10 men after Francesco Colonnese got his marching orders midway through the second-half.

There were few thrills in a match which was academic after Milan's crushing victory in the first leg, and there was little joy for Ronaldo, who is becoming increasingly muzzled by Italian defences.

Inter coach Gigi Simoni said: "It was always going to be difficult to get back a result like this one. Compliments to Milan." The only real disappointment for AC Milan was that bookings for Costacurta and French winger Ibrahim Ba meant that both men will now miss the first leg of the semi-final.

Andersson was replaced by Maurizio Ganz at the re-start and the man who last month was playing for Inter nearly headed Milan's equaliser after just three minutes. Milan enjoyed most of the second-half possession, and only some rugged defending by Inter kept them out.

Some of it was too rugged, though, and Colonnese got himself sent off for a second bookable offence - a foul in his continuing vendetta with Ganz. On February 26th last year - the day that coach Roy Hodgson announced he was leaving for Blackburn Rovers - Inter lost an Italian Cup semi-final on penalties to Napoli after playing about 90 minutes with 10 men.

Ganz had been shown the red card after Colonnese, then with Napoli, went down writhing in agony in the 35th minute.

AC Milan veteran Roberto Donadoni came nearest to scoring for Fabio Capello's side last night, his curling 20-yard shot in the closing minutes forcing a desperate tip over the bar from Inter's reserve goalkeeper Andrea Mazzantini.