Milan Derby

One of the games of the season, even with the somewhat failing Italian League, blue and black versus red and black. The Milan derby is usually an interesting match in one way or another. After The Special One lead Inter to the treble they are struggling to spark their season into life under Rafa, however for this fixture the line-up looks more likely to be closer to Rafa's first 11. AC Milan go into the match top of the table despite having a mixed start to their campaign, the so-called fab-4 have left Allegri scratching his head with regards to team selection, some would say pressure from higher places has lead him to playing overly-attacking sides. Today's selection see's only two of the fab-4 starting, Robinho on the bench and Pato out of the squad, with both teams playing 4-3-1-2 the game was set up for an interesting encounter.

Milan had a chance very early on with Abate making a very good run and an equally good cross to a semi-marked Seedorf, who headed over the bar. In the fourth minute Milan broke with Zlatan Ibrahimovic sprinting from inside his own half, taking on two defenders as he got inside the Inter box, a cute little backwards flick caught Materazzi out who took out Ibra with a hanging leg. The swede got up, brushed himself down to take the penalty, which was calmly slotted in the left corner after sending the keeper the wrong way. There was little celebration from the striker scoring against his former club in his first derby in red within five minutes. As well as the first goal, Milan got the first booking of the match after Abate made two fouls on Samuel Eto'o. A second goal was on the cards when Ibra was allowed through on the right-hand side, hint of offside, he had Flamini open in the centre of goal, who surely would have slotted home was it not for an excellent last-ditch intervention from Cordoba.

After the inevitable Gattuso booking, just inside the twenty minute mark, Ibrahimovic nearly doubled his tally with a Di-Canio style cross-goal volley, after yet another Milan attack. A few players in red are treading dangerously with regards to getting a second booking, namely Gattuso and would imagine with an early booking Abate will be getting pin-pointed for the rest of the match. Inter haven't been in the game, nothing has really came off, they have been giving up a lot of space in midfield and not really challenging physically. Joel Obi was forced to leave the field 10 minutes before half-time, Cambiasso was stripped and ready to go, however Rafa changed his mind and put Coutinho the 18 year old attacking midfielder/winger on. The Brazilian started Inter's best attack of the match, not that there was much to beat, he also finished it with a scuffed shot very wide of the Milan post. A few minutes later, Gattuso should have picked up his second yellow when he took down Sneijder just outside the box. The wide free kick struck by the Dutchman made the net bulge, but only because it hit the outside of the side-netting on the way past. The half-time whistle blew after Inter had a few more attacks, nothing too noteworthy, but signs of encouragement for the second half.
Milito's game was over at half-time and Goran Pandev replaces him, not such an attacking move as we would expect. Milan joined in for the half-time substitution fun, replacing red-card threatened Gattuso with Pirlo.

Inter started the half well with a few attacks, ending not so well however. The crowd were showing their unease when Eto'o decided to try and gee them up. Although Milan have had lots of chances, the first notable save of the match was made by Abbiati, after Ambrosini mis-timed a tackle on Eto'o in a wide area. The free kick was well placed for a cross, all the big men were up for Inter and Sneijder thundered a shot towards goal for Abbiati to parry the ball to Ibrahimovic, who cleared. Shortly before the hour mark, Abate went off on a stretcher, only to come back on a minute or so later, the cynic in me would say he was breaking play when Inter were building a little pressure. He instantly got involved with Pandev who pushed over the right-back, resulting in a yellow for both players meaning Abate was off with 30 minutes left. Robinho made way for Antonini to replace the Abate(swapping flanks with Zambrotta), leaving Milan with Ibra alone up-front.
Shortly after the sending off Rafa changed system to a 4-3-2-1, shuffling the pack after Materazzi took a knock from Ibrahimovic forcing him off and Biabiany came on to play an right sided attacking midfield role. Milan make the last substitution of the match, taking off Seedorf after an excellent 70 minutes and bringing on Kevin-Prince Boateng, which should give a little more steel to 10-man Milan. With a little more than 10 minutes left, Inter set in wait around the Milan box and eventually make a chance with Sneijder placing a bullet cross along the 6-yard line, but nobody was there to take what would have been the simplest of goals. Ambrosini broke an Inter counter and took a booking for the team, from the resulting free-kick at the half way line, Pandev combines with Eto'o to put the striker through on goal before Tiago Silva covers and makes a great tackle to put the ball away for a corner.

The full-time whistle was edging ever closer and Milan seemed to be sinking towards their own goal, Inter had a lot of pressure but hadn't been able to carve that great chance as yet. Pirlo and Ibrahimovic wasted some time in the corner, with some good holding off, I,nter then broke and won a free-kick just outside shooting range, a teasing ball was played in by Sneijder but a push on Silva halted play. Flamini started the four additional minutes running towards the corner flag and eventually gave an Inter throw-in. Milan were able to see out the remaining minutes with little problem, Milan jumped back to the top of the table, one point ahead of Lazio, and 6 above Inter, although there are a couple other teams in between. According to our mate Silvio  the league is over, not sure I'd believe that, but it was a good win for AC. The words to describe this match definitely go along the lines of ugly and turgid at times, although there were a few really good performances. The front three for Milan had great movement which had the Inter defensive unit baffled at times, Ibrahimovic gave one of those performances that Barca fans would never believe, full of work and held the ball up and linked play excellently. Robinho provided a constant threat with his pace, receiving great passes from in the main Seedorf and Ibra. Despite a lot of good positions, you could count the number of saves in the game on one hand, double finishing training for both sets of players is required it seems. A few weeks ago I thought Allegri was under a lot of pressure for his job, but if he can keep players happy while not playing(Ronaldinho and Pato) while not in the team he may have the correct system to win the league now. A lot of people are now saying Rafa is heading for the door, I am in two minds, he was never going to produce the same as Jose, the players don't have it in them but he still has a lot of quality in the squad and has to deliver. Whether he gets the January window to strengthen, as he would like, I am not so sure, he may be a gonner by then.