As if there were ever any doubts about it, Stefano Pioli and Simone Inzaghi will rely on their main protagonists for the Champions League derby with the first leg tomorrow.
In the last month or so the two teams have been on different paths. Inter first slowed down and then corrected their course in Serie A and in the meantime even snatched a Coppa Italia final with a win against arch-rivals Juventus in the semis.
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Milan meanwhile have seen themselves drop from comfortably inside the top four to just outside but they did get a win over Lazio on Saturday which helps their cause, with a spot in the next edition of the Champions League a minimum objective.
Of course, these are very intense weeks. From the 29th game of the league season on 7 April to the 34th game last weekend, Inter and Milan practically played every three days with the Nerazzurri on 9 matches (due to the cup semi against Juve) and the Rossoneri on 8.
Even isolating the only six league matches, Inzaghi’s boys run more than their opponents, with 681,226km in total against the 663,772km of Pioli’s side. If that wasn’t enough, there was about 20,000km more distance covered by Inter in the two quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Adding it all up, Inter have broken through the one million kilometre mark since 7 April, while the Diavolo do not reach 900,000km.
Tonali is the Milan player with the most minutes in that stretch on 569 ahead of Theo Hernandez’s 566, while for Inzaghi it is Acerbi who has always started from the beginning and has always played until the end, with the exception of the home match against Monza.
Inter have played one more game but have shot 38 times more: 141 shots against 103 for Milan as per data from StatsBomb and Stats Perform. Lautaro shoots more than anyone with 26 shots, plus 17 for Lukaku, while Giroud has just 7 shots in one month.
The most dangerous Rossoneri player thus comes as a big surprise: Alexis Saelemaekers. He shoots more than Leao, more than Diaz, more than anyone else in the Milan side.
“The most dangerous Rossoneri player thus comes as a big surprise: Alexis Saelemaekers. He shoots more than Leao, more than Diaz, more than anyone else in the Milan side.”
I’d choose quality over quantity on shooting any time. Just because he has shot the most doesn’t make him the most dangerous. Far from it actually. That just means he needs far more shots to make a goal than the others.
So, our team loses less energy and spends less money for nearly same achievment this year.
Good news 🙂