Inter Milan – AC Milan: Inter’s Strength Reign Over Toothless Milan (1-0)

A match characterized by an evident tactical disparity, as Inter Milan backed up the success in the Supercup derby with a determined performance, whereas AC Milan were unable to shake off the heavy difficulties from last weeks. Simone Inzaghi, again, yielded the results of his well-structured gameplan in front of a sluggish Stefano Pioli side.

Tactical analysis and match report by Giovanni Cesaroni.

A year has passed under San Siro’s sky and a lot has changed since an Olivier Giroud’s brace led AC Milan to a crucial 2-1 win in the Milan derby, on the way to an incredible league title, the nineteenth of their history.

As league leaders Napoli reinforced their lead earlier in the day, taking it to a massive 16-points gap after a 3-0 win against Spezia, the Milan derby no longer had the leadership of this year’s Serie A at stake, but it still retained enormous significance for the season of the two teams, besides the historic city rivalry.

After a rather inconsistent series of results since Serie A resumed at the beginning of 2023, Simone Inzaghi confirmed his untouchable 3-5-2 formation, hoping to repeat the performance which saw Inter demolishing Milan with a thumping 3-0 win in the exotic scenery of the Italian Supercup, held in Riyad last month. Paris Saint-Germain-bound Milan Škriniar returned to the side together with Francesco Acerbi and Alessandro Bastoni in the back three. Further up top, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Nicolò Barella and Henrikh Mkhitaryan formed the usual midfield, with Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian confirmed as attacking wing-backs. Finally, Lautaro Martínez and Edin Džeko made up the chosen attacking partnership.

On . . .