AC Milan’s top four hopes were given another big blow on Sunday night at San Siro as they lost the Derby della Madonnina 1-0 against Inter.
Lautaro Martinez got the only goal of the game in the first half for Simone Inzaghi’s men as his header from a shockingly defended corner made it seven goals for the Argentine against Milan.
The Rossoneri were poor for the vast majority of the game but did fashion a couple of chances to steal a point, in particular the derby hero from exactly a year Olivier Giroud being let down by his first touch when in on goal.
The result moves Inter five points ahead in the standings and keeps Milan in sixth place, with a Champions League spot now looking more and more in danger.
Stefano Pioli raised some eyebrows with his team selection as he reverted to a 3-5-2 formation with Rafael Leao dropped to the bench, Divock Origi and Olivier Giroud up front together plus Junior Messias as a box-to-box midfielder.
The first chance of the game went to Inter who had the better of the opening exchanges, with Calhanoglu reversing a nice ball into the ball of Lautaro Martinez who let fly first time from just inside the box, but Ciprian Tatarusanu made a great reaction save to one hand it over the bar.
The ‘home’ side then came within inches of taking another lead inside 10 minutes just as they did in the Supercoppa, with a near post header from Lautaro Martinez meeting a Skriniar cross though he glanced it just wide.
Dzeko went down inside the box having received a bit of a shove from Matteo Gabbia as he attempted to free space for a shot, though referee Davide Massa waved away the appeals and there was rightly no VAR review.
Inter continued to dominate the chances in the opening half hour, and the Milan back line had to be alert to block a shot from Barella on the edge of the box that was sailing towards goal, then from the resulting corner Tatarusanu had to punch clear from his line.
They had been knocking on the door, and Inter deservedly took the lead in the 34th minute. It was no more complex than an in-swinging corner whipped towards the near post that Lautaro Martinez steered goalwards having got himself free, and it nestled in via Simon Kjaer’s head.
Pioli made yet another interesting decision at half-time when he decided to withdraw Messias after an unsuccessful 45 minutes as a mezzala, with Brahim Diaz coming on in his place.
It took less then nine minutes of the second half for a double change to follow as Rafael Leao and Alexis Saelemaekers came on for Origi and Calabria.
Moments after the changes Tatarusanu was forced into another save as Lautaro ghosted in at the near post and fired first time after beating Kalulu to a low cross, but the Romanian saved well.
Milan’s first shot of the game came two minutes before the hour mark with Theo Hernandez whipped a cross in towards Giroud who was just past the penalty spot though he could not keep his leaning header down.
With 20 minutes left to go and with Theo having whacked a free-kick well over the bar, Pioli made another change as Malick Thiaw came on for Gabbia. Inter, meanwhile, brought on Brozovic, Lukaku and Gosens.
Milan spurned a huge opportunity to get level as they broke down the middle with Leao who made a surging run into the box and squared to Giroud, whose first touch let him down and the chance went begging when trapping it cleanly would have probably resulted in an easy finish.
Moments later Giroud had another opportunity to test the goalkeeper, this time from a free-kick around 23 yards out, however the Frenchman whipped an effort a couple of yards wide of the near post.
The final sub from Pioli came with five minutes left on the clock as Kjaer was replaced by Ante Rebic.
Inter thought they had put the game to bed in the final minute of normal time as Lautaro finished from close range after a header in behind, but he had strayed just slightly offside and the decision was upheld after VAR review.
