Inter Milan took a step towards Istanbul, where the Champions League final match is scheduled to take place on June 10, by winning the first leg of the “Euro Derby” against Milan (2-0), Wednesday in the San Siro in the semi-finals.
The last Italian team to lift the ‘trophy with big ears’, in 2010 under the stewardship of Jose Mourinho, Inter remain more than ever in the race for a fourth trophy if it is confirmed next Tuesday.
During a one-way first half, Edin Dzeko (8th) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (11th) cut through a sluggish Milan to enter the game and then, in the absence of Rafael Leao, slightly slashed the pack.
Rossonero coach Stefano Pioli, who also lost Ismail bin Nasser, who was injured (17), is only hoping to find the Portuguese in the return match to hope to offer Milan the first final since 2007, which is the year of the seventh and last coronation in the championship. The competition.
Insufficiently recovering from a thigh injury, the Portuguese was forced to sit in the stands where many “VIPs” and former stars of the two clubs, such as Andriy Shevchenko or Samuel Eto’o, were set up to follow this 236th Milan derby in history – the fifth in C1.
begins “demonic”
The winner will certainly be an outsider in the final match, against Real Madrid or Manchester City, but Italian and Italian football did not shy away from their happiness in this Calcio festival, a few months after the World Cup without Nazionale.
San Siro sported a fiery atmosphere and giant banners on all decks, including a dazzling “Diavolo” on the Milanista side, in honor of the Rossonero club’s nickname.
But it was Inter who signed the “diabolical” start to the match, scoring on the first two occasions.
Dzeko, who preferred Romelu Lukaku to support Lautaro Martinez in attack, opened the scoring after a corner kick from a lopsided rebound left Mike Mignan helpless (8).
Barely recovered from this first blow, Milan received a wonderful water three minutes later: Mkhitaryan found himself alone in front of Mignan after a trick from Martinez and it was over (11).
The match was heralded as a tactician, in the Italian style, which actually changed its spirit. Even the Rossoneri came close to being 3-0 behind with a big pace, but Minyan was saved from his position after a missile from Hakan Calhanoglu before blocking the rebound from Mkhitaryan (16).
Milan encouraged by Djokovic
The Rossoneri once again passed near the patch with a penalty awarded to Martinez for an alleged foul by Simon Kjaer before it was ruled out (30). The Rossoneri then finally put some pace into their game, thanks to Alexis Saelemaekers, responsible for Leao’s left-side forgetting, and Brahim Diaz. But a little too hasty.
Diaz (49), then Junior Messias (50) missed the goal in a good position, then saved Nerazzurri goalkeeper Andre Onana, in turn, from his position through a shot from Sandro Tonali (63).
Milan, who were bleeding more with the entry of Divock Origi, however, did not manage to reduce the score against Internazionale in management, who wasted his best chance on the counter by Maignan, flawless in front of Dzeko (53rd).
This is the first defeat for the Rossoneri in C1 against Inter – after two draws (and one qualification) in the semi-finals in 2003 and two victories in the quarter-finals in 2005 – but it is already the third in three derbies in 2023, after the slap. In the Italian Super Cup (3-0) in January and then a brief setback in the league (1-0) in February.
But it’s not the feisty Novak Djokovic, a Milan fan also present in the stands before joining Thursday’s Rome Masters 1000, who will say the opposite: No match is ever lost after the first round.
