AC Milan have earned a huge Derby della Madonina victory over Inter Milan on Sunday evening at San Siro. Christian Pulisic broke the deadlock with a fine solo effort in the 10th minute, and Federico Dimarco put the finishing touch on a brilliant piece of play from Lautaro Martinez to equalize in the 27th. In the end, it was Matteo Gabbia who settled the contest with an accurate header in the 89th.
The teams
Inter boss Simone Inzaghi went with his usual 3-5-2 setup. Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi and Benjamin Pavard formed the last line ahead of goalkeeper Yann Sommer. Nicolo Barella anchored the midfield, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Hakan Calhanoglu tasked with creating from the middle of the park, Denzel Dumfries picked ahead of Mateo Darmian on the right, and Federico Dimarco on the left. Captain Lautaro Martinez was expectedly partnered by Marcus Thuram upfront.
Meanwhile, Milan coach Paulo Fonseca chose the classic 4-4-2 shape, though with with plenty of attacking potential. Mike Maignan was able to start in goal, despite the injury that forced him off in the Champions League defeat to Liverpool in midweek. Fonseca named the back four of Emerson Royal on the right, Fikayo Tomori and Matteo Gabbia as the centre-backs, and Theo Hernandez on the left. Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders paired up in the middle of the park, flanked by Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic. Alvaro Morata and Tammy Abraham were both chosen to start up front.
The game
Despite the attacking lineups, neither side attacked too rashly in this game. However, Pulisic gave the Inter defence a hint of what he’s capable of when given enough space early on, and though he overcomplicated things at the first attempt, his second run through the middle, much like the first, resulted in Milan taking the lead. Inzaghi probably had plenty to say to his defenders about it. Indeed, some of them had plenty to say to their teammates straight away.
Keen to set the score level as soon as possible, Inter pushed forward with more determination, and in the 27th minute, Lautaro brilliantly held on to the ball and turned goalwards on the edge of the box, before slipping it through towards Dimarco. The wing-back produced a composed finish to equalize.
From that point on, the contest cooled gradually. Obviously, neither team wanted to risk too much before halftime, but there wasn’t too much excitement after the break either. However, Inter seemed to be moving the line of battle slowly towards Maignan’s goal, for a while, before Milan started threatening very dangerously through quick transition.
Set up by Abraham, Leao had a good chance to score in the 75th minute, and Abraham himself had an even better one two minutes later after a brilliant pass from Reijners.
Towards the end, Milan showed greater desire and fitness levels. They were obviously better prepared to fight until the final whistle, and they arguably deserved the winning goal, which came from an excellent Gabbia header with just over a minute left on the clock.
As Inter tried to find another equalizer during stoppage time, they almost conceded a third goal instead. Milan broke on the counter in the 97th minute through substitutes Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor, but the latter blasted his shot over the bar and the final whistle sounded.
The aftermath
The natural significance of winning a game against their city rivals aside, it was a huge, huge triumph for Milan for several other reasons. For one, it ended a record run of six consecutive defeats to the Nerazzurri. It also brought the two teams level on points in the Serie A table, though sitting sixth and seventh, respectively, with a tally of eight each after five rounds of the campaign, neither are where they want to be. There is a long way to go yet, and both will hope to start climbing the ladder towards the surprise leaders Torino (11 points) as soon as possible.
Inter will seek to put things right when they face third-place Udinese away on Saturday, while Milan face 16-place Lecce the previous evening at home.
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