Lautaro Martinez’s deflected header from a corner proved enough for Inter to win the Derby della Madonnina, as a change of system and dropping Rafael Leao failed to end Milan’s continuing crisis.
These sides had only met last month in the Supercoppa Italiana, with the Nerazzurri lifting the trophy thanks to a 3-0 victory in Riyadh. That was just one of the heavy setbacks in the Rossoneri’s crisis, including Coppa Italia exit to 10-man Torino and back-to-back defeats to Lazio and Sassuolo, conceding nine goals. Ismael Bennacer, Fikayo Tomori, Mike Maignan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alessandro Florenzi were injured, so Stefano Pioli transformed to a 3-5-2, dropping Rafael Leao again and moving Junior Messias to midfield. Marcelo Brozovic was back on the bench, so only Joaquin Correa sat this out.
It took under six minutes for Lautaro Martinez to force a desperate one-handed save out of Ciprian Tatarusanu, then the Argentine’s diving header whistled just wide on a Milan Skriniar cross.
Edin Dzeko went down in the penalty area, but the referee did well to spot he had tripped up over his own leg. After Nicolò Barella’s strike was charged down, Tatarusanu had to punch the resulting Federico Dimarco corner out from under the bar.
Inter were dominating possession and took the lead when Hakan Calhanoglu whipped in a corner for the head of Lautaro Martinez from six yards, taking an added deflection off Simon Kjaer. It was the new captain’s seventh goal in the Derby della Madonnina, putting him behind only Stefano Nyers with 11 in the Inter record books.
It was the sixth game in a row that saw Milan concede the opener and consolidated their terrible record of defending against set plays.
Tatarusanu again struggled to punch an in-swinging corner out from the near top corner, this time from Calhanoglu, as the Rossoneri managed just 26 per cent possession in the first half.
Brahim Diaz and Rafael Leao came on, but Inter continued to dominate and Dzeko pulled back from the by-line for Lautaro Martinez to sting Tatarusanu’s gloves at the near post.
Things started to improve for the Rossoneri, as Giroud’s header was over from a Theo Hernandez cross and the striker almost sent Brahim Diaz clear after a poor Andre Onana clearance.
Theo Hernandez turned a free kick over the bar and Onana smothered a Brahim Diaz effort on Leao’s assist, but the San Siro crowd groaned when Leao on the counter found Giroud inside the box only for the veteran’s first touch to let him down horribly.
Giroud also curled a set play just wide of the near top corner and Marcelo Brozovic’s shot was charged down after good work from Romelu Lukaku.
Lukaku had the ball in the net on 83 minutes, but only after the referee had blown the whistle for his foul on Malick Thiaw.
Lautaro Martinez also scored in the final minute on a Lukaku flicked header, but he had strayed narrowly offside.
Tatarusanu kept the scoreline down in stoppages with a fingertip save as Lukaku’s snooker shot was rolling into the far bottom corner.
Inter 1-0 Milan
Lautaro Martinez 34 (I)
Milan dreadful yet again. I thought they were the worst – quality wise, not attitude wise – side I’ve ever seen win the league last season and now they seem to have gone back to their usual ways of the last decade.
They’ll need a miracle to beat Spurs now and change their atrocious record against epl sides.