It was the 88th Derby della Madonnina as AC Milan and Internazionale faced each other in a battle of first against second. Only two points separated the Milanese rivals and this was the first time since 1993 that the city rivals had occupied the first and second spots while facing each other in this fixture. In that year, Milan went on to lift the Scudetto.
Very much like in the first leg of this fixture, Milan got off to a flying start as Alexandre Pato opened the scoring within 50 seconds of the game. The move all started from the most unlikely of sources as Gennaro Gattuso split the Inter defense with a grass-cutter through ball from the right side to find Robinho in the penalty box. The Brazilian failed in his attempt to round Julio Cesar as the ball bounced off the Brazilian shot-stopper and bundled inside the area.
In the cauldron of the San Siro and the confusion of the Inter penalty box, it was Pato who showed the most composure as he latched onto the loose ball and fired into an empty net. The Rossoneri had their early lead, leaving Leonardo bemused as to how his defense could have succumbed to such an early lapse in concentration.
Inter could have found themselves in even more trouble however eight minutes later as the referee failed to spot a handball inside the box. Milan protested Maicon’s raising of his arm to block Clarence Seedorf’s shot, but the referee waved the appeal away.
After the goal however, Inter began to come into the game more as Milan’s defensive block dropped back deeper in an attempt to contain Inter. Pazzini managed to get in behind once however, but shot off-balance and straight into the arms of Christian Abbiati. It would be Pazzini who would come closest again, this time off of a corner, with his header drawing a fantastic diving save from Abbiati.
The Rossoneri’s only other chance of the half was crafted was off of a 35 yard shot from Mark Van Bommel, which was deflected by Cristian Chivu and left Julio Cesar rooted to his goal and unable to react. The Brazilian was however relieved to see the Dutchman’s shot crash against the crossbar. And so the first half whistle came, with the game tentatively poised at 1-0. Milan may have had scored early but Inter had been the more positive of the two teams in the closing moments of that half.
As we said before, the Rossoneri were doing well defensively to cope with Inter. It is Massimiliano Allegri who must take most of the plaudits for this. Allegri set up in his customary 4-3-1-2, Kevin Prince Boateng played the trequartista (playmaker) role behind Pato and Robinho.
Gennaro Gattuso captained the side in midfield, in his favored mediano (a role close to that of a box-to-box midfielder but with more defensive emphasis) role, while Van Bommel slotted in as the midfield anchor, protecting the back-four. Seedorf played off the left of midfield as a regista (deep-lying playmaker), a repeated experiment of Allegri’s that we had already witnessed with Andrea Pirlo earlier this season. The tactical setup worked perfectly. The Dutch duo, in a tandem of silk and steel, put in a great performance that would have had most Milan fans reminiscing of a similar synergy between Gattuso and Pirlo. The finishing touches from Allegri came in the defensive setup.
Indeed with Van Bommel effectively playing as an extra defender, the fullbacks could have been given license to roam freely. But this was not the case as – barring a few runs forward from Ignazio Abate – the Milan back-line mostly remained as a flat back-four. What this achieved is it stifled Leonardo’s 4-2-1-3. Van Bommel marked Wesley Sneijder, while Abate and Gianluca Zambrotta man-marked Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev respectively. Thus it allowed Milan to always outnumber Inter’s attackers.
So in a very much different manner that Allegri – in his usual midfield setup – divided the team into two halves [a defensive seven and an offensive three] he this time was able to free up two extra midfielders [Seedorf and Gattuso] to support the tridente (front-three).
The second half kicked off and Milan came out on top once again. It all went from bad to worse as Chivu caught Pato at the edge of the area on 54 minutes. It was Boateng who had played Pato onto goal, as Chivu misjudged his positioning while the Brazilian was running across him. The Romanian was given his marching orders, and Leonardo withdrew Pandev to introduce Ivan Cordoba. The ensuing freekick saw Thiago Silva unleash a venomous drive that Julio Cesar could only parry away. The loose ball fell to Boateng’s feet but the Ghanaian failed to find the target, his shot going high and wide.
Now with both the goal and man advantage, the Rossoneri had the lion-share of the possession and crafted virtually all the chances, pinning Inter back into their own half. Abate used the opportunity to push farther up the field and it is on this initiative that he got the assist for Milan’s second. Seedorf dinked a ball over the top and into the box, where Abate stood in acres of space, at which point the young Italian chested the ball down and crossed for the onrushing Pato to apply the finishing touch. It was a brace for the Brazilian, nodding the Rossoneri out of reach.
A host of chances followed, with both Mathieu Flamini (who had come on for the injured Gattuso) and Pato playing in Robinho. On both occasions however the Brazilian persisted with his propensity to fluff his lines when in front of goals, seeing his shots blocked by first Julio Cesar and then Cordoba. They would be Robinho’s last contributions as Antonio Cassano replaced him with ten minutes to go.
The final stages of the match were purely academic, Milan focusing on retaining possession without taking too many risks. But it was in the dying moments that Seedorf played a long diagonal ball that Cassano latched on to that a chance arrived. Upon bringing the ball down, Javier Zanetti brought Cassano down and the referee pointed to the spot. Cassano stepped up and fired down the middle, the scoreline now 3-0 and Milan capping off a fantastic derby win.
It was a great match for the Rossoneri that should prove to be a massive step forward towards the Scudetto. Pato stands as man of the match, and after having been much maligned in recent weeks for failing to deliver, the Brazilian starlet is relieved to have answered his critics. He confirmed his elation in his at his post-match interview in saying: “Finally I was decisive in a big match.”
Seedorf and Van Bommel are others who should be applauded for their contributions as well. Van Bommel has proven to be the best acquisition of the winter mercato, whilst Allegri seems to have reinvented Seedorf in this new regista role. In a game where the Rossoneri feared leaving red-faced for having allowed Inter to close what was a 12 point gap and leapfrog them, it was Milan who battered the Nerazzurri until they turned blue and black.
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Pandev just couldn’t seem to get into the game. Does he seem pretty hit or miss to you?
Pandev has been played far too wide since his arrival at Milan. Pandev is a good player but is best as a second punta, just like he did when at Lazio when playing in a trident formed by Rocchi, Zarate & himself. He suffers from really influencing games from out wide and thus drifts in and out. He’s much more influential in and around the penalty box