Tonight’s Derby della Madonnina at a noisy San Siro offered the nominal away side, Milan, the chance to return to the top of the table after Lazio’s win over Napoli in the first game of the day. An Inter win would take them at least level on points with their city rivals.
Although it was hardly a barnstorming derby, it was dripping with tension. A former Inter man scored the only goal of the game with under five minutes gone and Milan held on for dear life throughout a niggly second half which saw them go down to ten men.
In just the fifth minute the Rossoneri went ahead. Zlatan Ibrahimovic broke forward and made his way into the Inter box, where he was clumsily fouled by Marco Materazzi. Ibrahimovic stepped up and drilled the ball home from twelve yards. Milan started vibrantly, looking to get in behind the Inter defence and threatening on a few occasions early on.
They came close to a second after 13 minutes, Ibrahimovic again found some space behind the left back but his pass across the area for Mathieu Flamini was read well and efficiently cut out. A few minutes later he failed to connect with Robinho in an extremely promising position as Milan took the game to the home side. The big Swede volleyed over in the 20th minute and two minutes later Robinho’s strike was chalked off for offside.
The first half hour was superb from a Rossoneri perspective but Max Allegri’s side squandered a few good opportunities to double their lead, a failure that is not advisable against the ruthless Nerazzurri. Rafael Benitez was lured into a positive substitution when teenage midfielder Joel Obi went off with an injury and Philippe Coutinho was introduced to replace him despite Esteban Cambiasso stripping off. With 40 minutes gone, Wesley Sneijder’s free kick hit the side-netting after Gennaro Gattuso was fortunate to avoid a second booking.
Despite coming back into the game in the closing minutes of the half, Inter remained a goal down at the break. After Milan’s strong and productive start, the unplanned substitution marked an improvement in Inter’s fortunes and gave them reason to be confident about the second half. At the interval, Gattuso was replaced by Andrea Pirlo for Milan and Benitez brought on Goran Pandev to replace Diego Milito.
Inter did indeed start the second period progressively, but it wasn’t until Sneijder’s lofted volley over in the 54th minute that they carved out an opening.
There was a dramatic flashpoint just before the hour mark which saw another Milan derby incident in which a player on the field waiting to be substituted was dismissed. Ignazio Abate picked up his second yellow for a clash with Pandev, who unbelievably escaped red for his part in the incident. Luca Antonini did come on, but replaced Robinho as Milan went down to ten with 30 minutes to defend their lead.
Inter were again arguably fortunate to avoid censure when Materazzi floored Ibrahimovic in an appalling mid-air tackle. The Milan striker didn’t hold back either and the Inter man came off worse - Ibrahimovic picked up a booking but in truth his challenge wasn’t much better than Materazzi’s and it could have been red. Shortly afterwards a low drive from Clarence Seedorf skimmed past the post.
With their man advantage Inter began to press hard for an equaliser, but just couldn’t make the crucial connection. With 12 minutes to go, Sneijder burst into the area but when his pass across the six yard line was fizzed across goal there were no black and blue shirts to meet it. Nevertheless, Milan were restricted to counter-attacking and by the final ten minutes were operated almost exclusively in their own half at best.
Unlike previous years, their was no air of inevitability that Inter would get an equaliser, and this is one of the key differences between Benitez and Jose Mourinho. Milan return to the top of the league and Inter finally lose at home. Serie A is Europe’s league to watch at the moment.
Tags: AC Milan, Inter Milan, Serie A