Inter 1-2 AC Milan: Gabbia scores late winner to stop history being made
AC Milan won their first Derby della Madonnina since 2022 after goals from Christian Pulisic and Matteo Gabbia either side of Federico Dimarco’s goal.
Ahead of the derby, Milan and more importantly the senior figures at the club were under intense pressure. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paulo Fonseca and Rafael Leao had been heavy topics of criticism after midweek events. However, the derby offered a fantastic chance for a restart.
Things started fantastically for the Rossoneri and after a large period of pressure, they took the lead through Christian Pulisic, who took advantage of the space left open by Inter’s defence and nicely finished his chance.
Their lead would only last 17 minutes, though, and after poor positioning, Inter levelled through Federico Dimarco – who was a persistent threat for the hosts all night.
Milan would eventually make their second-half dominance worthwhile, though, with a late goal from Matteo Gabbia following a fantastic cross from Tijjani Reijnders. A fantastic moment.
Before the game, Fonseca’s future was a heavy topic and after changing his system slightly, there were signs of promise throughout the game, and there were spells where his side looked the better of the two teams. Following the result, and more importantly the performance, it remains to be seen what the future holds.
The first chance of the game fell to Alvaro Morata – from the right-hand side, Tijjani Reijnders shifted inside finding the Spaniard who forced a save from Yann Sommer, and whilst the Rossoneri couldn’t do anything with the resulting corner it was a nice sign early on.
Milan almost breached the Inter defence twice in as many minutes as Pulisic drove through the middle and almost managed to weave his way through the defence, but he was stopped in his tracks. Again, a promising sign.
To the joy of the Milanisti in the Meazza, the promising signs became something tangible as Pulisic was, again, given space through the middle of the pitch. Seeing a gap in the Inter defence, the winger drove through and slid the ball past Sommer making it 1-0.
