AC Milan will be up against Inter in the Derby della Madonnina this evening, with the Nerazzurri as the designated home side, and there is a record in sight for the latter. Indeed, they could reach seven consecutive wins for the first time in the fixture’s history.
Milan are in a dire situation, to say the least, after registering just one win in the first five games. Paulo Fonseca needs to turn things around with a strong performance, just as the players need to show more willingness. However, as the stats and facts of the fixture show, Inter are the clear favourites.
Our pre-match preview has the latest team news and some opposition insight, while below are the key stats ahead of tonight’s game.
Key stats and facts
➤ Inter have won the last six Milan derbies in all competitions by an aggregate score of 14-2, a record for consecutive wins for the Nerazzurri against the Rossoneri. Overall, neither team has ever achieved seven straight wins in the history of the Derby della Madonnina in all competitions (Milan also 6 between 1911-1913 and 1946-1948).
➤ The first Milan Derby of the season is being played on one of the opening five matchdays for the fifth time in the last six seasons, as many times as across the previous 46 Serie A campaigns played in by both teams. Milan are unbeaten in each of the last seven derbies played on matchday 5 (W5 D2), the last of which came in 2022/23 (3-2 in September 2022).
➤ Inter have won nine of their last 14 games against Milan in Serie A (D2 L3). In the same period (since 2017/18), only against Udinese (10) and Hellas Verona (10) have the Nerazzurri achieved more wins, and only against Genoa (31) and Sampdoria (30) have they scored more goals than versus the Rossoneri (29) in the top-flight.
➤ Milan have won as few as five points from their opening four Serie A games of a season for the first time since 2018/19 (W1 D2 L1 in both), but they haven’t failed to pick up more than five points after five games of a campaign since 2013-14 under Massimiliano Allegri (W1 D2 L2).
➤ Inter have drawn four of their last six Serie A games (W2), as many draws as they had across their previous 28 matches in the competition (W23 D4 L1).
➤ Inter and Milan rank in the top three teams in Serie A this season for goals scored (both 9, level with Napoli), possession (64.5% for Bologna, 60.5% for the Nerazzurri, 59.2% for the Rossoneri), passing accuracy (90.2% for Juventus, 90.1% for Fonseca’s team and 89.3% for Inzaghi’s team) and build-up attacks (21 for Milan, 17 for Juventus and 13 for Inter).
➤ Milan are the team that have had the most different players score in this Serie A season with eight of their nine total goals scored by different players (Napoli – 6, Inter and Juventus – 5).
➤ Among the coaches to have managed more than five Derby della Madonnina matches across all
competitions, only Árpád Weisz (67%, 8/12) boasts a higher win-rate than Simone Inzaghi (64%, 7/11). Furthermore, in the event of a victory, the Inter coach would join Helenio Herrera and Árpád Weisz in 2nd place for managers with the most wins in the history of the Milanese derby, with eight wins across all competitions and behind only Carlo Ancelotti (10).
➤ Marcus Thuram has scored in both of his Serie A appearances against Milan: the only two players to find the net in each of their first three Derby della Madonnina league appearances for Inter in the three points for a win era are Ronaldo (between 1997 and 1998) and Romelu Lukaku (between 2019 and 2020).
➤ Only against Hellas Verona and Roma (6 against both) has Rafael Leão been directly involved in more goals than versus Inter in Serie A (5 – 3G, 2A). Furthermore, the only match in which the Portuguese striker has been directly involved in at least three goals in the ‘big 10’ European leagues was a derby against the Nerazzurri played on matchday five in 2022-23.
Out of the “banter” era and into the “punching bag” era …