Full-time: Milan 1-0 Internazionel
Mexes’ beauty settles it! Thanks for reading. There’s some competitive sport to read about here. Bye!
90 min + 3: Hernanes has a chance to convert a Brozovic cross from the right but he cannot connect correctly and it drifts harmlessly out of play. That should be that.
90 min +2: Montolivo now booked for … time wasting. In a friendly. Hahahaha!
90 min + 1: Not when they keep giving possession away cheaply. Bacca and Adriano both pick up loose passes, the latter being hacked to the ground by Guarin, who gets a yellow card for his troubles.
90 min: Three additional minutes. Can Inter take us to a shootout?
89 min: Palacio sends another poor cross in, which Milan, with every man defending in the area, clear. Bacca falls to the ground injured following a challenge from Brozovic. Play continues until Inter kick the ball out for treatment.
SENDING OFF! Nocerino is shown a straight red card
87 min: You’d think this was a derby! Three minutes to go and the seconds ticking by harmlessly, Nocerino makes a ludicrous two-footed lunge from behind on Kondogbia, catching the new Inter signing on his left achilles. No option but to be dismissed.
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85 min: Inter have numbers in the box but Palacio, on the right, sends a lazy ball into the hands of Abbiati at the near post.
84 min: Paletta is booked for push on Kovacic.
83 min: Ranocchia’s first act of note is to give away a corner but it’s cleared.
81 min: The game has lost all pattern now – not that it was great anyway – and unless Inter can find some attacking inspiration, we’ll be playing out the final minutes without much to report you feel.
76 min: And fresh legs! Handanovic, Jesus, Palacio, Guarin, Kovacic, Ranocchia are all on for Inter. Carrizo, Gnoukouri, D’Ambrosio, Nagatomo and Longo have jogged off.
Andy Hinchcliffe, on Sky, bless him, thinks the water break will ensure a great finish.
74 min: Bonaventura has a pop from the left corner of the box but it is right down Carrizo’s throat.
72 min: Too minutes until the next drinks break, thankfully; I’m gasping here, lunch was salty.
And an email from JR in Illinois – it’s all kicking off!
If you had told me when I woke up this morning that Phillipe Mexes was going to score a leaping sidewinder missile volley goal of the season candidate from outside the box I most likely would have asked you when the last time you had your mental health looked into.
To be fair, Mexes has form for the spectacular. Remember this?
70 min: Now Milan are the ones sitting back, happy to soak up the pressure, confident a one goal lead is enough. But Inter are beginning to gain some much needed territorial advantage and, all of a sudden, it looks like we have something bordering on competitive breaking out.
67 min: Inter are going forward with more force now and Icardi is almost through but finds Zapata in his way.
64 min: Now Bacca goes close to scoring a second but his low effort is kept out by an alert Carrizo.
GOAL! Milan 1-0 Internazionale (Mexes)
62 min: Oh wow! It has been an awful game up until this point but Mexes has saved the day with an amazing strike. Bonaventura takes a corner to him from the left and, unmarked on the edge of the area, the Frenchman unleashes a right-footed acrobatic volley which dips ferociously into the left corner. What a hit!
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60 min: Inter make five subs: D’Ambrosio, Hernanes, Icardi, Kondogbia and Brozovic have entered. Delgado, Dimarco, Taider, Santon, Baldini have come off. Milan make their ninth and 10th changes: Niang and Matri make way for Adriano and Bacca.
58 min: Niang delivers a teasing free-kick in from deep. Zapata leaps highest but fails to find the target with his header.
56 min: Mauri cynically takes down Santon. Inter take the free-kick quickly and another succession of measured buildup play follows before Taider sends a hopeless shot miles over.
54 min: That corner is taken low towards Andreolli at the near post but it’s intercepted.
52 min: Perhaps due to those changes, Inter have enjoyed a larger share of the ball but have spent the bulk of that zipping it around the back. Delgado has won a corner though, a punt from 35 yards or so takes a big deflection off Montolivo for a corner. Baldini to swing it in.
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49 min: Scrap that – Calabria is not playing, he was replaced by Antonelli. Anyway, to the football … Abbiati is called in to make an early save from a low strike by Delgado.
48 min: The only Milan players to have started both halves are Calabria, De Sciglio, Matri and Niang. Inter have indeed stuck with the same XI.
47 min: Those Milan substitutions, seven in total: Nocerino, Montolivo, Bonaventura, Mexes, Zapata, Mauri, Abbiati are all on. Lopez, Poli, Ely, Alex, Honda, De Jong and Bertolacci are having a rest.
Peep!
46 min: Inter restart. They appear to have stuck with the same XI, Milan have made five or six changes – will bring confirmation of those swaps as soon as.
Half-time: Milan 0-0 Internazionale
Dull.
44 min: Now Longo has the ball in the net, pouncing on a Di Marco’s deflected effort, but he is way offside. Where’s the yellow card now referee?!
43 min: A moment of complete idiocy from the referee here, who books Matri for finishing that effort having let De Jong off for his awful hack minutes ago.
42 min: Nagatomo dribbles towards the corner flag on the left but his cross is cut out by Alex. Milan attack rapidly from that and Matri looks to be through, punishing Inter’s high defensive line, but the flag is raised as he flicks the ball over Carrizo and into the net. (The goalkeeper had already stopped playing, noticing the linesman’s call).
40 min: Calabria puts in yet another cross but again he cannot find a white shirt. Disappointing.
39 min: And now Milan break. Matri dawdles with Niang waiting in the middle, though, and Andreolli nips in top clear for a corner. Honda takes that subsequent dead ball and Bertolacci heads over at the back-post.
38 min: It’s difficult for Longo up front on his own but after being fed by Gnoukouri he has no options and runs himself into trouble. Poor!
36 min: De Jong goes in hard from behind on Taider, making no attempt to win the ball. Foul but no card.
33 min: Milan take another short corner but it ends with a poor cross in and Inter cut it out.
32 min: We are underway again. Inter are too relaxed in possession deep in their own half and Honda intercepts a rubbish Delgado pass, feeds Niang who, off-balance, cannot hit the target.
31 min: Honda gives it to Calabria on the right but his cross is cut out. AND THAT’S DRINKS!
30 min: Better from Inter. Baldini flies forward and cuts in from the left but Longo’s return pass is too heavy, the midfielder cannot control and Diego Lopez is out to smother the danger.
29 min: Inter have possession and Santon flies down the right. The ball is worked to Longo but the lone frontman is quickly closed down by Alex.
28 min: Two minutes to the water break!
27 min: Or maybe three minute intervals. Milan STILL passing it about but struggling to penetrate.
24 min: Inter have spent the past 90 seconds with all 11 players within 40 yards of their own goal. Milan can’t find a way through and are stroking it from right to left and back again near halfway. I could repeat this exact post in five minute intervals between now and full-time.
21 min: Delgado concedes another corner. Niang plays it short, it’s swung in by Poli but Alex cannot direct his header on target.
20 min: Inter have managed it past halfway and Gnoukouri picks out Delgado with a beautiful right-footed pass but Delgado blasts over. Poor finish from the teenager but at least there was some promise on show!
17 min: Inter, unable to get out of their half, concede a cheap free near halfway, but De Jong’s floater troubles nobody and Carrizo is unlikely to make an easier catch over the next nine months.
16 min: More Honda trickery and a quick-fire exchange with Poli almost sees him through but Popa intercepts.
15 min: All Milan at the moment. Honda bothers Santon again but his ball in is cut out by Andreolli. Inter’s inexperience beginning to tell.
13 min: Niang denied by Carrizo! Santon concedes possession cheaply and Honda feeds Niang, who dances into space but his low drive from around 10 yards is well saved by the Inter keeper.
11 min: The first real chance falls to Milan as Ely heads over from a Honda cross on the left wing.
10 min: A break in play now as Poli goes down injured. He shuffles off dazed and confused following some attention but expect him to rejoin the play soon.
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7 min: Inter enjoy a spell of prolonged possession but are only going sideways and then backwards before going sideways again, at which point Gnoukouri passes carelessly out of play. The pitch looks like something more accustomed to cows grazing it than footballers gliding along it.
5 min: Another cross emanating from the right flank, this time struck by Honda, is hooked clear by Andreolli.
4 min: Milan caress the ball around midfield before feeding it out to an advanced Calabria on the right. He sends a deflected cross towards goal, where Carrizo comes out to claim.
2 min: Baldini breaks forward on the left and Calabria comes across to cut the danger out, giving away an early corner. That is cleared at the front post.
Peep!
1 min: Milan get us going, playing from left to right in their change strip of white. They are already sweating – and we will have water breaks after 30 and 75 minutes.
They are playing Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I’ve got a feeling’ at the moment inside the stadium in Shenzhen, which means things can only improve. There are piles of fans clad in both kits doing the Poznan. It’s almost* like being in San Siro with a red and black curva to our right and a blue and black curva to our left. I do wonder what percentage of those in the crowd support their local side, though.
*Not quite.
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The starting cast
Milan: Diego Lopez; Calabria, Alex, Ely, De Sciglio; De Jong, Poli, Bertolacci; Honda; Matri, Niang. Subs: over a dozen of them and not yet confirmed.
Internazionale: Carrizo; Santon, Andreolli, Popa, Nagatomo; Gnoukouri, Taider; Baldini, Delgado, Dimarco; Longo. Subs: over a dozen of them and not yet confirmed.
Preamble
This is not a vintage era for the Derby della Madonnina, what with both sides mere bystanders in Serie A as Juventus ascended to a level far above last season. But each summer brings fresh hope, so here we are, before things turn pear-shaped and both the Rossoneri and Nerazzurri are again up in arms over their teams’ failings.
There is also something not quite right about such intense rivals meeting in July. In China. As a tune-up. With nothing on the line. But then again, money matters most in modern football and traditionalists can do nothing but sit back and shake their heads in disappointment while accepting things are only likely to get worse. (And, let’s be honest, watch the games anyway)
Anyway, the rivalry could add a little more bite to proceedings. Milan, under new manager Sinisa Mihajlovic, have played three friendlies before this – winning the opening two against lesser lights in Italy before succumbing to a defeat at Lyon. Inter, meanwhile, were quite a bit off the pace against Bayern in midweek, failing to register a shot on target until the 90th minute. Still, let’s not read too much into this!
Kick-off: 1pm BST.
Teams and dozens of substitutes: soon.
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