While most club legends have years of faithful service to credit for the adulation they receive, a few players are lucky enough to secure that status with a single performance.
Olivier Giroud was certainly a valuable player across three exemplary seasons at San Siro, but he arguably has one derby performance to thank for the god-like esteem he is still held in by the Rossoneri faithful to this day.
The Frenchman’s dramatic brace against hated rivals Inter in February 2022 not only turned a 1-0 deficit into a late 2-1 victory, but it also paved the way for the club’s first Serie A title in 11 seasons.
‘If we’d have lost the game, they would have won the title’ Olivier Giroud on one of Italian football’s great comeback victories
“This was when we won the Scudetto in 2022,” Giroud tells FourFourTwo as part of an exclusive chat. “That season, we had two games that turned the title race in our favour. The second of those two matches was Napoli away, where I scored in a crucial 1-0 win.
“Even bigger, though, was the game just a few weeks before, against our local rivals and direct competition Inter. We were 1-0 down in San Siro against Inter and I scored a brace which made the difference in the title race.”
With Inter and AC Milan second and third in the table respectively, there was a huge amount riding on that game, particularly with only a few months left to go in the title race. Giroud slid in at the back post to level the scores in the 75th minute, before turning his marker in the box to win the game three minutes later.
It is a win that has gone down in folklore with the Rossoneri, with Giroud the subject of songs, tifos and murals in the time since that epic performance.
“If we’d have lost the game, they would have won the title,” smiles Giroud. “We came back and I was treated like a hero that day. The fans sang my name and celebrated me with tifos because of that performance. San Siro derby was special and on that day I believe I changed my whole legacy in Milan.”
This article was sponsored by Cafe Casino.
