AC Milan played a near-perfect game at San Siro as they beat rivals and league leaders Inter 1-0.
With their second Derby della Madonnina win of the season, Milan cut Inter’s lead at the top of Serie A to seven points. A win for Inter would have put them 13 points ahead, a perhaps unassailable lead, but they looked completely out of control for the entire game.
Luka Modric had a trademark performance at the heart of almost everything Milan produced. He was on hand to scare Inter in the opening few minutes as Yann Sommer’s wayward pass rolled out to Christian Pulisic, but Modric’s shot was just wide.
It was a sign of things to come for Inter, who created nothing.
It felt as if Christian Chivu and Massimiliano Allegri were in complete reverse from the beginning, with the former getting his gameplan completely wrong and the latter getting it spot on.
In the 34th minute, Youssouf Fofana played a wonderful pass into the path of Pervis Estupinan, who smashed the ball into the top of the net and Sommer was helpless to stop him.
From there, Milan were in complete control aside from moments of frenzied attacks that Inter attempted intermittently.
Milan blocked every inroad that Inter tried to make, covering the passing lanes and killing their threats from the wings with organised defending.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Federico Dimarco both had golden chances to score, the latter of which made a criminal miss from inside the box and hit the ball far over the bar.
Milan defended immensely and as Inter tried to force the ball in late with shot after shot, they withstood under pressure and secured a stunning win.