Summary
What a result for the Rossoneri, but it could have been so different. Had Mauri Icardi not scuffed his penalty against the post when the score was 1-0 to Milan, Inter may well have gone on to win this match. Instead, Milan romp to a magnificent win, with Kucka, Honda, Niang, Alex all impressing.
Is that Inter’s title challenge over? They are nine points adrift of leaders Napoli and are on a torrid run of form: losing three and drawing two of the last six Serie A matches. It would take an almighty reversal of fortunes to see anyone other than Napoli (and Juventus) win the Scudetto this season.
For Milan, this results caps a remarkable for renaissance for Mihajlovic. The manager was regarded as a dead man walking a few weeks ago. Milan are six points from a Champions League place. Earlier this week, Milan board member Barbara Berlusconi said “Our target for this season is to qualify for Europa League.” Perhaps they will be now dreaming of more.
Thanks for reading, and for your emails and tweets tonight. See you next time. Cheers!
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Full-time: Milan 3-0 Internazionale
Mihajlovic runs onto the pitch in celebration. He can’t shake Mancini’s hand of course, the Italian is in the stands.
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90 min: Three minutes added on here. Inter are just waiting for the referee to put them out of their misery.
89 min: The game is grinding to a halt. Neither team look interested in playing the final minutes. This is the biggest Milan derby win since 2011, by my reckoning. Milan also won 3-0 on that day: Alexandre Pato scoring twice!
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87 min: Milan’s fans are now cheering every pass. Olé! This is ugly for Inter.
84 min: Telles on for Ljajic for Inter. Bacca off, Andrea Bertolacci on for Milan. He’s got a quite fantastic chance conversion rate, hasn’t he?
We've barely seen Bacca in this game, but that's the story of his season. Believe that's his 21st shot on target in this campaign, 11th goal
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) January 31, 2016
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83 min: Yet another piece of suicidal defending from Juan Jesus lets Honda in on goal, but Murillo does well to put his body in front of the Japanese winger’s shot.
82 min: Another chance for Milan. Juan Jesus has been taken to the cleaners today, and Honda is again his tormentor, feinting left and going right before cutting the ball back to the penalty spot. Both Bacca and Balotelli are there, and actually get in each other’s way, with the former just managing to stab a half-hearted effort at goal, which is turned behind by Handanvic. Should have been Milan’s fourth.
79 min: One minute into his match, Balotelli is shown a yellow card for a late challenge on Medel.
78 min: Substitutions from both teams. Balotelli is on for Niang, who receives a standing ovation from the home support and an affectionate kick on the bum as he makes for the bench. For Inter, Melo comes on for Perisic.
GOAL! Milan 3-0 Internazionale (Niang 77)
Well that’s that! This is becoming a rout for Milan. Inter looks absolutely knackered and are helpless to prevent Bonaventura breaking beyond Melo. It’s three on two! Bonaventura produces a lovely lollipop to leave Murillo on the deck and squares the ball to Niang who shoots first time. Good save from Handanovic with his feet, but Niang is there to rifle the rebound into the roof of the net.
75 min: Inter stream forward as they look for a way back into this match. Perisic works some space at the back post, controls a cross expertly, and turns back into traffic instead of going for goal, much to the sighs of Inter’s fans.
GOAL! Milan 2-0 Internazionale (Bacca 73)
You know what I said about Niang a few minutes ago … forget it. This is a quite sensational cross from the Frenchman. He’s given time and space to get his head up and whips the ball between Handanovic and Miranda. Bacca steals in and volleys the ball home with his shin from four yards out. Mihajlovic leads the celebrations. A missed Inter penalty and a second for Milan. What a four minutes we’ve had!
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Icardi misses!
Donnarumma stands tall and Icardi, who was waiting for the keeper to commit himself one way or the other, passes the ball against the foot of the right-hand post! Donnarumma celebrates by jumping a full five feet in the air.
Penalty to Inter!
69 min: Icardi latches onto a pass from Perisic and crashes a shot towards the bottom corner but a magnificent save from Donnarumma keeps it out! What a save! But the rebound falls to Icardi again and just as he’s about to shoot for a second time, Alex catches him with a ill-timed slide tackle.
67 min: Kucka goes down in the Inter box, claiming a penalty. Again the referee waves the claims away, and rightly so. But if it’s not a foul, then surely it’s a dive?! Kucka is on a yellow card remember, so it looks like he’s a lucky man.
65 min: Icardi’s first involvement sees him flick the ball around Kucka, with the Slovakian sticking out his arm. Handball. Yellow card.
63 min: Icardi is on! Jovetic is off. Thank goodness for that, he’s looked well off the pace. Jovetic gets a friendly pat from Mihajlovic as he passes the Milan bench.
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60 min: Milan corner, but Niang fails to beat the first man. On this evidence, not sure why Milan turned down £16m from Leicester City for Niang. His touch has been very suspect in this game, and doesn’t seem to play with his head up. Must be infuriating for Bacca.
58 min: Brozovic takes aim from range. Well over. Awful effort.
56 min: Alex is booked, deservedly, for bringing Eder down on Inter’s left. There is an awful lot of card waving going on. The two teams are desperate to see the referee take control of this one.
54 min: Tempers are flaring after that Mancini red card. A Milan free kick is tossed into the box and the ball breaks to Bonaventura on a tight angle but a combination of Medel and Santon somehow keep the ball out.
51 min: Inter are at it again, looping a ball over the head of Alex, but this time Donnarumma comes and clears the ball with authority. Good goalkeeping.
Roberto Mancini is sent off!
50 min: An awkward backpass from Abate lands Donnarumma in all sorts of trouble, and the 16-year-old completely slices his clearance. The ball loops up and looks as though it will fall to Eder, but Donnarumma flies in to punch the ball, taking man and ball inside the area! Penalty? No! After taking an age to make up his mind, the referee awards a goal kick, deeming the keeper to have played the ball. Replays show it is the correct decision.
#Donnarumma vs #Eder (foto via @Sport_Mediaset) pic.twitter.com/2FApxbPZ8t
— Giovanni Capuano (@capuanogio) January 31, 2016
Mancini is incensed. He is demanding a penalty. But he goes too far, and is sent to the stands. The Inter manager sees red! “You should be ashamed of yourself. Ashamed,” he says to the fourth official as he head for the tunnel.
@michaelbutler18 Seems like a harsh decision to send Mancini off there.
— Tom Price (@sixstringtom) January 31, 2016
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49 min: Icardi is warming up.
47 min: Both captain start the half a bit shakily: Juan Jesus can only watch as Honda drifts past him yet again. Montolivo responds by simply booting the ball out for a throw-in when he was in fact trying to release Niang.
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Peeeep! Here we go again! No changes from either side at the interval.
Inter have come out of the tunnel a full four minutes before Milan and the officials. Whatever Mancini said, he kept it brief. The players are looking fired up.
Inter fans there is hope: Milan have let in 17 goals in the second half of matches in 2015/16 – three more than Inter have conceded over the whole 90 minutes of those matches.
Plus! Inter have not been able to overturn the result when they have found themselves in a losing position in 2015/16 (six times), drawing two and losing four of those games.
Meanwhile … our Paolo has been busy …
There you go, Milan fans, fixed it for you. #visionsoffuturecoreografia #madmspaintskills #halftimewellspent pic.twitter.com/UArAsyz39v
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) January 31, 2016
Half-time entertainment: it’s a Mark Hateley header YouTube compilation of course! Complete with The Prodigy musical accompaniment.
Half-time: Milan 1-0 Internazionale
Inter must surely win this match to retain any hope of a title challenge. Will Mancini make changes? Icardi on? Palacio?
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45 min: One minute added on here. This half has started and finished with such pace. The set-piece goal actually came in a bit of a lull in play.
43 min: Jovetic booked for a blatant hand-ball, sticking out an arm to stop Honda’s flick going past him. No complaints.
41 min: A hopeful shot from Llajic is deflected towards the touchline and Donnarumma comes sprinting out of his goal and just – JUST – gets to the ball before Jovetic. For a moment, it looks as though Juan Jesus is going to clip the ball into the open net, but he can’t twist his body correctly and instead it’s just a hopeful high ball, which is well headed away by Alex.
38 min: This is all Milan. They look very comfortable here, and after that frantic start, Inter already look tired.
“Quite how fierce the rivalry between Inter and AC Milan I discovered during my first trip to Italy this summer,” emails Ezra Finkelstein. My dad and I were shown the way to the stadium by a kind man in a business suit. His first question to us was,with a serious face: “who do you support?”. I took the chance and answered AC Milan, of course. Thankfully my answer was the right one, and I dread to think of what he would have done had I answered Inter. Maybe played a Pavarotti song.”
GOAL! Milan 1-0 Internazionale (Alex 35)
A bullet header! Milan take a short corner, Honda has room to cross and Alex crashes the ball in at the back post. Nobody wanted it more than the Brazilian. That’s the first header that Inter have conceded this season, they have had the best defence in Serie A this season but nobody got anywhere near Alex. Milan fans go wild, among them: Silvio Berlesconi.
34 min: Great defending from Miranda. Abate gallops forward on the overlap and whips a low cross in towards goal but the Brazilian just gets ahead of Honda to clear the ball out for a corner.
33 min: Two chances for Jovetic: first the former Man City man makes a poor connection at the back post on a dangerous cross, and in the next phase of play, Jovetic crashes a low shot towards goal from the edge of the area, but Donnarumma collects easily.
31 min: Milan are looking the stronger at the moment, although Inter definitely retain a threat on the break. Icardi meanwhile, is not looking happy on the Inter bench. Eder was given the nod by Mancini over his club captain.
Mientras tanto Mauro Icardi en el #DerbyDellaMadonnina pic.twitter.com/Hls4lAYDmm
— El Mister (@TheMisterSB11) January 31, 2016
29 min: Another shocking decision from the referee. Milan nicely build another attack, which culminates on a shocking bodycheck on Niang on the edge of the Inter box. Nothing doing!
26 min: The tempo of this game has finally relented. It had to at some point. Both clubs came out like a train.
24 min: Another dangerous Milan free kick, this time out wide after Santon crashed into Bonaventura. Niang fancies it this time, but it’s the same result! The cross is way too strong, and goes out for a goal kick.
22 min: Milan have a central free-kick 30 yards out. Bonaventura is over it … and he skies the ball high and wide. Poor.
20 min: Tonight’s referee is Antonio Damato. He’s handed out four red cards in the 10 Serie A matches he has overseen this season. This is his first ever Milan derby. “What game is he watching?” emails J.R. in Illinois.
18 min: Nasty blow to the face of Brozovic from the arm of Bonaventura. Foul, no yellow card. Perisic, meanwhile, is Inter’s most potent threat so far, again breaking free on the right, but an excellent interception from Alex sees off the danger. Had the Brazilian not got to the ball, Jovetic was waiting on the back post ready to sweep the ball in.
16 min: So close from Kucka! He’s been the best Milan player in the opening stages. First the Slovakian nutmegs Juan Jesus and then fires a cross-shot towards the far post where Niang is lurking. Handanovic gets down well, his save avoiding the path of Niang and Baccca, and Inter are able to clear, with the referee calling for a foul on Miranda.
14 min: Just in case you were wondering …
Inter fans' choreography reads: "I watch you and I take heart, you're more beautiful than a dream".
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) January 31, 2016
The wonderfully named Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer has also emailed in to help explain what that might mean:
“It doesn’t make much sense, but then it obviously comes from a love song by a certain Vasco Rossi, and it seems to express how much the Inter fans are in love with their club (just as the original lyrics express a boy’s infatuation with his girlfriend).”
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12 min: Perisic has a free run at Antonelli on Inter’s right wing – the Croatian cutting inside on that left foot of his but his shot is deflected behind for a corner, which comes to nothing.
10 min: Wow, what a start we’ve had to this game. It’s been a frenetic start! The tempo out there is fierce.
8 min: Another strange decision from the referee! Kucka runs a full 40 yards with the ball and is blatantly brought down by Brozovic on the edge of the Inter area, but the referee waves play on!
7 min: Eder latches onto another long ball from Brozovic, and looks to have the beating of Antonelli but is brought down! Antonelli is the last man, surely this is a red card?! No! The referee decides that Eder was in fact the offender, as he grappled with the Milan left back. Ooooo, very controversial. Mancini is going postal on the sidelines, looked a dead-certain red card.
6 min: What a miss from Eder! Juan Jesus whips a cross to the back post, Eder is completely unmarked at the back post but from two yards out, he gets his header all wrong and can only plant it into the ground. It was easier to score!
5 min: First chance for Inter! Lovely ball from Perisic releases Eder and the small Brazilian-born striker scampers down the right to the byline, rolls the ball across the six yard box to Jovetic but Alex just about hacks clear, when he might have easily sliced the ball into his own net.
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4 min: It’s a bit scrappy out there, Honda just left a boot in on Medel. Ouch.
2 min: Niang powers his way up the middle of the field, skipping past challenges of Medel and Brozovic, but Murillo covers well to snuff out the attack. Milan turned down a £16m offer from Leicester for the Frenchman. The club obviously think he can go on to great things, despite the fact that he’s only scored twice in the league this season.
Peeeep! And we’re off!
A thick fog is hanging over the stadium, with flares going off in the stands. The two captains for the day, Montolivo and Juan Jesus, plant a tree (off the pitch) for charity, using spades. Yep, that just happened.
Bizarre start to Milan derby! @Inter and @acmilan unite in the most unusual of fashions ahead of kick off. #BTEFS https://t.co/T4As6XoLzO
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) January 31, 2016
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The Inter fans respond in kind. Anybody got a translation for me?
Curva Nord #MilanInter pic.twitter.com/0BVGjhCRav
— Giovanni Capuano (@capuanogio) January 31, 2016
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The teams are out! The atmosphere is excellent inside the San Siro and the Milan fans have been busy …
Curva Sud's choreography. #ForzaMilan pic.twitter.com/og4i126KbI
— Milan Stuff (@TheMilanBible) January 31, 2016
That’s Mark Hateley’s header from 1984, when the Derby-born striker scored the winner in this very fixture for AC. Absolute belter.
Inter fans, what do you make of Eder? Looks an excellent signing IMO, although I’m a little surprised that he hasn’t been paired with Icardi tonight, the two played at Sampdoria remember.
Answers to michael.butler@theguardian.com or @michaelbutler18. Do get in touch if you have any thoughts on anything else.
Sinisa Mihajlovic, Milan head coach, was some player, not least for his days with today’s opponents. Here he is showing his wares in the 2005 Coppa Italia final. Woof.
His record as manager against Inter doesn’t read too well: two wins, six defeats and one draw in the nine games that he has faced them.
Let’s unpack those teams a little bit …
Inter:
Davide Santon starts! What?! The former Newcastle man hasn’t kicked a ball since 27 October, has been linked to West Ham and Norwich on loan in this transfer window, but out of nowhere Mancini gives him a start today. What a way to bring him back into the fold.
Mauro Icardi is benched! Eder starts instead, only two days after joining on loan from Sampdoria. Icardi has been excellent this season but missed a golden chance to score a winner in Inter’s 1-1 draw with Carpi. “Icardi’s miss? I would’ve scored that & I’m 50 years old!”, said Mancini afterwards.
Perisic is also back after one week out through injury. He starts on the right wing tonight.
Milan:
Mario Balotelli is once again condemned to the bench for a game against his former club. No shock there, despite his goal in the Coppa Italia earlier this week.
This will be Gianluigi Donnarumma’s first derby. What a talent he is, but it will be interesting to see how the atmosphere affects the 16-year-old goalkeeper.
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The teams
Milan 4-4-2: Donnarumma; Abate, Alex, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Honda, Kucka, Montolivo, Bonaventura; Niang, Bacca
Subs: Abbiati, Livieri, De Sciglio, Calabria, Simic, Zapata, Bertolacci, José Mauri, Poli, Balotelli, Boateng, Menez
Internazionale:
Here it is! Our starting XI for #MilanInter! ⚫🔵 #ForzaInter! #DerbyMilano #FCIM pic.twitter.com/QSTTH319cR
— F.C. Internazionale (@Inter_en) January 31, 2016
Preamble
Half-empty stadiums, managers insulting each other with homophobic remarks, officials, players and agents being investigated over taxes, Italian football still leaves a lot to be desired in 2016. But there are still only a few who still don’t get giddy at the prospect enjoy a Milan derby. And except that at the top of Serie A, we have one of the most exciting title races in years, due in the main to Juventus’ awful start to the season and their remarkable recovery since.
Internazionale have played their part in this, a part that is increasingly becoming less prominent. Roberto Mancini’s men sit fourth going into this game, and will close the gap to six points from leaders Napoli if they win tonight. Lose, and one suspects that nine points will be too big a gap to bridge between now and the end of the season: both Napoli and Juventus continued their remarkable league form earlier today with 5-1 and 4-0 victories respectively.
Do or die then for Inter, and don’t their fans know it. They turned out in their droves on Saturday – with flares, banners and no shortage of enthusiasm – in an attempt to light a fire in their players’ bellies. Fredy Guarín, now departed for China, scored a magnificent solo goal to decide this fixture earlier this season. Who will be the hero tonight?
Milan have spluttered to sixth, but they are almost certainly too far from the top three to start thinking about Champions League football. There have been some positives – Carlos Bacca has slotted in nicely up front – but Sinisa Mihajlovic remains a man under pressure.
Roll up, roll up, it’s the Milan derby. And if it’s good enough for Luís Figo, it’s good enough for you.
Today Derby in Italy FORZA @Inter 🍀🍀✌️💪💪⚽️ pic.twitter.com/gdpfa8AhC8
— Luís Figo (@LuisFigo) January 31, 2016
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT, 8.45pm in Milan
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