Eternal rivals AC Milan and Inter Milan played out a scoreless draw in the latest installment of the Derby della Madonnina at the San Siro stadium on Monday morning.
With both sides stuggling in the middle of the table, the match itself signified just how far both Serie A giants have dropped, having been two of world football’s super powers as little as five years ago.
Both sides had goals disallowed during a match which suffered a lack of real attacking quality at either end, with an emphasis on defence of attack the tactic employed by both Pippo Inzaghi and Roberto Mancini.
Inter were the first to go close in the opening exchanges, with Hernanes producing a stunning effort from 35 yards out only for Diego Lopez to make a brilliant save, palming the ball away.
Suso, making his first league start for the Rossoneri since signing from Liverpool in January then went close on two occasions, both long range efforts well dealt with by Samir Handanovic in the Inter goal. Milan then had a goal chalked off for offside when centre-back Alex slammed home on the rebound following Handanovic’s save from Nigel De Jong’s effort, but the whistle had already gone with the assistant referee raising his flag.
The hosts then had their own goal disallowed shortly after the break, with Hernanes finding Mauro Icardi who then gave it to Rodrigo Palacio to side-foot home, but the flag had been raised once more with Icardi having moved early before laying it off. Inter began to dominate the contest and created numerous opportunites, but were unable to find a way past Milan’s defence, before the match’s real moment of controversy late in the second-half.
With Hernanes managing to get a shot away the ball struck the arm of Luca Antonelli inside the area with what looked like a clear handball, but the referee waved play on to the disgust of Mancini on the Inter bench. Not long later it seemed like the Nerrazzuri finally had the breakthrough, with Mexes bundling the ball over his own goal line – but once again the goal was chalked off due to a foul in the build-up.
In the end neither side could be separated, a dour 0-0 draw the final result.
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Lack of cutting edge evident for both sides
In a match which was formerly on a level with the likes of the Manchester Derby and El Classico in terms of on field quality, this season’s Milan derby highlighted just how far both Inter and AC Milan have fallen from grace.
Mauro Icardi was almost non-existent throughout, with Rodrigo Palacio and Xherdan Shaqiri also both failing to impress.
At least Inter were regularly creating dangerous opportunities though, unlike their crosstown counterparts who, after a good spell in the opening 15 minutes, fell away significantly as the match wore on. Suso went missing after the opening half hour and Jeremy Menez was the only point of danger for Milan at all.
Gone are the days where the likes of Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Andriy Shevchenko and Christian Vieri are contesting once fierce Milan Derbies where the world’s best were consistently on show for their respective clubs.
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Was it a penalty?
Both managers have had contrasting views regarding the decision not to award a spot kick for Inter in the second-half, when Antonelli seemingly handballed inside the area.
Inter coach Roberto Mancini was visibly furious at the decision during the match, before sharing that disappointment afterward with the press.
“I’m pleased with the team, they gave everything, but it was a definite penalty. There needs to be consistency in the refereeing.’’
Milan coach Pippo Inzaghi, on the other hand, believed it was more of a case of ball to hand rather than hand to ball stating – “it was an involuntary handball,”
“It’s true that penalties have been given for less, but I would not give a penalty for that.”
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