That was such an enjoyable game. Mauro Icardi produced two devastating finishes and then calmly scored a 90th-minute penalty to complete his hat-trick. Milan played brilliantly in the second half, with Suso scoring a lovely goal of his own. Thanks for your company, goodnight!
Full time; Internazionale 3-2 AC Milan
That’s it! Inter move 10 points clear of Milan after a highly entertaining derby.
90+3 min Icardi gets a standing ovation as he is replaced by Santon. The BT commentators think the penalty award was harsh. I’m not so sure; he had his arms around D’Ambrosio’s chest.
90+1 min There will be three minutes of added time. You have to feel for Milan, who have performed admirably in the second half, but Mauro Icardi’s genius for goalscoring looks to have settled this match.
GOAL! Internazionale 3-2 Milan (Icardi 90 pen)
Icardi completes his hat-trick with a lovely penalty!
89 min An Inter corner flashed across goal, and Rodriguez - who saved a goal moments earlier with that block - as penalised for manhandling D’Ambrosio. It’ll be taken by Icardi, on a hat-trick, to win the derby.
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88 min Wonderful play from Inter! Vecino makes a tremendous run from the halfway line into the area before finding Icardi. He flicks the ball behind him to the substitute Eder, whose shot is brilliantly blocked by Rodriguez. And now Inter have a penalty!
84 min “Never seen the like of Icardi’s second goal?” says Geoff Wignall. “Young man, you never saw Law: that much is clear.”
Ah, I should have been clearer - I meant the way he seemed to deliberately slice it with the outside of his shin.
GOAL! Internazionale 2-2 Milan (Handanovic own goal 81)
Milan have equalised again! Borini’s inswinging cross from the left somehow evaded a bunch of players in the middle of goal, but Bonaventura appeared from nowhere beyond the far post to slide the ball in! Handanovic managed to push the ball onto the post, a brilliant save, but it rebounded onto his knee and into the net. Technically that’s an own goal, which is a bit harsh on Handanovic and Bonaventura.
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79 min Perisic is booked for a hand-off into the face of Andre Silva. That looked a bit harsh.
78 min Another change for Milan: Locatelli on, Romagnoli off.
77 min Borja Valero’s big, dipping corner is won emphatically in the air by Perisic, and Donnarumma makes a decent save to his right.
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76 min A smart run from Joao Cancelo, whose cross deflects behind for a corner.
73 min An Internazionale substitution: Joao Cancelo replaces the excellent Candreva.
71 min Suso’s long-range shot deflects to Romagnoli, who runs out of time waiting for the ball to drop and eventually stabs it over the bar.
70 min The timing of that goal seems to have winded Milan, who have been relatively subdued in the last few minutes.
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66 min Gagliardini is booked for a foul on Borini. You don’t see many unique goals in football, but I can’t remember anything quite like that second from Icardi.
GOAL! Internazionale 2-1 Milan (Icardi 63)
The magnificent Icardi does it again! This has been some second half. Icardi led an Inter counter-attack and played the ball wide to Perisic on the left. He ran at Musacchio, got to the byline and cut the ball back into the area. It came at a really awkward height for Icardi, who had both feet off the ground as he deliberate sliced a volley across Donnarumma and into the corner. That was a tremendous piece of improvisation. I think he hit it with the outside of his shin, never mind the outside of his foot.
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62 min Great save from Handanovic! A cross from the right fell nicely beyond the far post for Bonaventura, who opened his body to shoot low across goal. Handanovic, who had almost no reaction time, plunged spectacularly to his left to stop the shot.
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60 min That was a great chance for Inter on the break. Candreva on the right wing fizzed an excellent low ball into the the path of Vecino, who sidefooted a first-time shot just wide from 18 yards. He probably should have scored.
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59 min Milan are rampant. This turnaround verges on the bizarre, because they were hopeless in the first half.
58 min “Matt Dony, you should have practiced being taken out cynically and violently from behind also,” says Simon Frank. “Garden practice apparently worked out for Matt Le Tissier- he used to bounce a ball off his wall and volley it against a 3-paneled shed. No points for hitting the middle panel.”
GOAL! Internazionale 1-1 Milan (Suso 56)
Milan are deservedly level thanks to a beautiful goal from Suso. He came infield from the right onto his left foot, helped by Musacchio’s selfless off-the-ball run, and placed a precise curling shot into the far corner from 22 yards. There was hardly any pace on the shot but the placement was excellent.
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54 min Milan continue to create chances. Rodriguez crosses low towards the near post, where Cutrone gets ahead of Skriniar and hooks a shot into the side netting. His movement to get in front of Skriniar was excellent.
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53 min Milan look much livelier in attack since the introduction of Cutrone.
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51 min The corner comes to Borini, who drags a left-footed shot from 15 yards that Handanovic saves down to his left.
50 min Suso hits a sweet, dipping strike from 30 yards that is tipped over by the leaping Handanovic. It was straight down the middle which made it a relatively comfortable save.
49 min Milan have a goal disallowed for offside. Andre Silva struck a low shot onto the inside of the far post, with Musacchio gleefully roofing the rebound. The flag went up against Musacchio, and replays showed he was clearly offside when Silva had the shot.
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48 min Vecino, found by Perisic, drills a low shot a few yards wide from 25 yards. Donnarumma had it covered.
47 min “Liam Brady was my idol growing up too,” says Justin Kavanagh. “But I wonder if nostalgia isn’t what it used to be? Would he get into most top-notch sides today, now that everything is so much faster and the playmaker role is such a thing of the past?”
He’s a rich man’s Granit Xhaka isn’t he?
46 min Peep peep! Inter begin the second half.
Milan have made a half-time change, with Patrick Cutrone replacing Franck Kessie. That suggests a switch to 3-4-1-2.
Some half-time reading
Half time: Internazionale 1-0 Milan
Peep peep! Inter lead, deservedly so, through a high-class goal from Mauro Icardi. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
44 min Milan almost equalise on the stroke of half-time. Kessie turns Gagliardini neatly and slips a pass through to Borini, who gets behind Nagamoto and smashes a low first-time shot across goal. Handanovic gets down very smartly to his right to save, and Borini can only head the follow-up into the side netting from a tight angle.
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42 min Vecino rakes a left-footed shot from the edge of the box that is comfortably held by Donnarumma.
41 min Skriniar, the young Inter centre-half, looks an impressive, dominant defender. He hasn’t given Andre Silva a kick, which may be why Andre Silva has just given him a very late kick. He might have been booked for that.
39 min Suso’s increasing frustration manifests itself in a petulant foul on the influential Borja Valero.
37 min Milan haven’t had a shot on target. There’s been an obvious difference in class in this first half.
36 min The voarcious Icardi shoots straight at Donnarumma from 25 yards.
33 min “I’m still some way short of 40, Simon Frank, but I initially fell in love with football thanks to S4C’s welsh language Sgorio in 1990-ish, hero-worshipping Van Basten,” says Matt Dony. “ Thanks to him, I spent hours and hours and hours practicing volleys in my garden, before accepting I’m a clodhopping defender and getting on with my life. Everything was better in the 90s.”
Even nostalgia?
32 min Perisic’s stinging shot from the left of the box is blocked by Musacchio. Milan are under all kinds of pressure at the moment.
30 min That goal was so classy: the quick passing down the right, Candreva’s beautiful cross and Icardi’s finish.
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GOAL! Internazionale 1-0 Milan (Icardi 28)
Mauro Icardi gives Inter the lead with a fine goal. After some snappy passing down the right, Candreva curled a superb first-time ball into the corridor of uncertainty, and Icardi got between two defenders to help it into the far corner. That was such a good finish because the bounce was awkward and he had to take it first time.
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25 min Vecino is the latest man to be booked, this time for a foul on Bonaventura. Inter are angry because Biglia appeared to get away with handball a few seconds earlier.
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23 min Borja Valero’s excellent free-kick from the right skims off the head of a Milan defender and goes out to Perisic on the left. He hits a deep, swirling cross that is thumped just wide by the head of Miranda. That was close.
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22 min Romagnoli is booked for a deliberate block on Candreva, who was about to go past him on an Inter break.
20 min Suso has a pop from 25 yards, and screws it well wide.
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19 min That corner comes to nothing. I don’t know why I bother sometimes.
18 min Bonaventura runs at D’Ambrosio in the box and wins a corner for Milan, who are slowly familiarising themselves with the concept of ‘attack’. Bonaventura’s corner leads to another corner, this time on the right-hand side.
17 min It hasn’t been the most entertaining game so far, that sweet strike from Candreva aside. A scruffy match, as Chris Perry points out on BT Sport, suits Milan a lot more than Inter.
16 min “Everyone talking about the 90s but for me Liam ’Chippy’ Brady was one of the greatest to grace Serie A in the 80s & was unfairly jettisoned by Juve for some French lad Platini who was tidy enough,” says John McEnerney. “He won 2 Serie A titles in his 2 seasons with The Old Lady. Legend.”
Didn’t he score a penalty to win Serie A in his final game, knowing he was going to be sold? That’s the definition of class.
15 min Miranda is booked for a hack at Andre Silva.
13 min Candreva hits the bar! It was a lovely effort, floated with his right foot from 20 yards, and it twanged off the top of the bar as Donnarumma leapt desperately to his left. He may have had it covered; either way it was a superb effort.
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12 min The corner is worked short to Suso, whose ball into the box is hopeless.
11 min Rodriguez does excellently to retrieve Borini’s overhit pass and win a corner for Milan.
10 min It’ll be a long night for Milan if they continue like this. They have hardly crossed the halfway line in the first 10 minutes.
7 min It’s still all Inter, though they haven’t yet created anything of note.
4 min “I always felt Andrea Silenzi and Ruggiero Rizzitelli never got enough credit,” says Simon Frank. “They were lethal for Torino back in the days when Torino were an underperforming giant. Maybe it’s because Silenzi went on to have such a great career with Forest, their partnership got overshadowed.”
You’re nothing if you haven’t proved yourself in This League™. See also the wildly overrated Shevchenko.
3 min A lot of early possession for Inter, who are the home side tonight. Icardi is just offside as he runs through on goal onto a long pass from Gagliardini.
1 min Peep peep! AC Milan kick off from right to left.
“Favourite 90s Serie A player, Rob?” asks Shaun Wilkinson. “Trying to avoid the super-obvious names, I am undecided between Faustino Asprilla and, partly because I was present at his final Serie A game, Beppe Signori.”
Bloody hell, what a question. My head has started spinning. I think I’m about to suffer a fatal attack of happy memories. I really have no idea, so I’ll do the modern thing of answering a different question to the one I was asked. Well, Shaun, my favourite Serie A 90s team were undoubtedly Sampdoria’s 1990-91 champions. This thing has never felt less like work than when I was researching this article.
An email! “For those of us in our mid-40s, this game will always be Gullit, Rijkaard, Van Basten versus Klinsmann, Matthaeus, Brehme; Holland v Germany,” says Simon Frank. “So I assume under that logic we are all Milan fans.”
I just want humanity to be the winner, Simon. (And I love that West Germany side, perhaps the most underrated World Cup winners.) Somebody should write a book on the golden age of Serie A in the late 80s and early 90s. Domestic football will never get better than that. It was immense. You could write a whole book just on Sunday 5th May 1991.
Pre-match reading
Team news
Internazionale (4-2-3-1) Handanovic; D’Ambrosio, Skriniar, Miranda, Nagatomo; Gagliardini, Borja Valero; Candreva, Vecino, Perisic; Icardi.
Substitutes: Padelli, Berni, Dalbert, Santon, Ranocchia, Cancelo, Karamoh, Eder, Pinnamonti.
Milan (3-5-1-1) Donnarumma; Musacchio, Bonucci, Romagnoli; Borini, Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura, Rodriguez; Suso; Andre Silva.
Substitutes: A. Donnarumma, Storari, Calabria, G. Gomez, Abate, Zapata, Paletta, Montolivo, J. Mauri, Locatelli, Cutrone.
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Preamble
Hello there. Internazionale and AC Milan have had a disappointing time in recent years, but that hasn’t reduced the status of the Milan derby - or, as I call it when I want to hint at an ocean of cosmopolitan metrosexuality just below the surface, the Derby della Madonnina.The two teams could be playing in Promozione Lombardy rather than Serie A and this match would still merit use of Donald Trump’s favourite superlative.
Inter, like the publicity for each of R.E.M’s last six albums, are promising a return to form. They have won six of their opening seven games, and would be top were it not for those pesky Neapolitans. A win would take Inter to within two points of Napoli - and 10 clear of AC, who seem to be stuck in a never-ending transition.
Last season’s derbies were deliciously dramatic, both ending 2-2 after injury-time equalisers. Those of us who are neutral and simply want humanity to be the winner would love something similar tonight.
Kick-off is at 1945 BST, 2045 CEST.
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