Inter vs AC Milan: Who will clinch the first Derby della Madonnina?
Inter will take on AC Milan at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in the first Derby della Madonnina of the season on Sunday evening.
It’s the third of three exciting fixtures in a busy weekend in Serie A this weekend, and already there have been some changes in the table. Lazio’s impressive win over Juventus now sees Inter move up into the second spot, with Juventus falling into third.
Inter and Milan have faced off a total of 166 times in Serie A, with the Nerazzurri having the edge in terms of wins, recording 61 in comparison to Milan’s 51. Arguably, of the two sides, the Nerazzurri are very much the ones enjoying the purple patch at the moment. Luciano Spalletti’s men are still unbeaten, whilst Vincenzo Montella’s troops have already lost three games out of seven. Inter’s only slip-up was a 1-1 draw with Bologna, whereas by contrast, the Diavolo were crushed 4-1 by Lazio, and then lost back to back fixtures to Sampdoria and Roma, both by 2-0 scorelines.
The defeats to Lazio and Roma were quite disconcerting as Milan were one of the biggest spending sides this summer. Naturally, the club’s owners took a huge gamble as the team were figuring that the Rossoneri would make it back into the Champions League, and thus their huge expenditure would essentially pay itself off. It hasn’t, unfortunately thus far.
Meanwhile, Inter will be hoping to heap more misery on their rivals after an excellent star. Juventus suffered their first loss of the season and the Nerazzurri could close the gap on Napoli, who beat Roma, to just two points. The Partenopei have had a flying start to the season and now have won eight straight games.
By contrast, Milan comes into this game having lost 2-0 to Roma. Whilst losing to sides like the Giallorossi and Lazio is hardly totally shocking, it also showed that Milan is not yet ready to mix it up with the bigger sides, but losing to a small team like Sampdoria really set off major alarm bells around Milan’s camp. In terms of personnel, Hakan Calhanoglu is suspended, whilst Andrea Conti is out and Nikola Kalinic is in doubt for this match.
Inter are only missing Marcelo Brozovic for this fixture, giving Luciano Spalletti everyone else available. Can they heap more misery on their rivals?
