The San Siro awaits one of the biggest Milan derbies in years as champions Inter host their local rivals hoping to maintain a solid lead at the top of Serie A.
Inter are four points ahead of Milan heading into today’s clash, which could be a turning point in Simone Inzaghi’s quest to retain the Nerazzurri’s title in his first, so far hugely impressive, season as coach.
His team are unbeaten in the league since the middle of October last year, a 15-match run which contains just four draws, including one against AC Milan in the first derby of the season back in November.
Photo: Reuters
It is the start of a big two weeks for Inter, with the visit of AS Roma in the Coppa Italia on Tuesday followed by a trip to second-placed SSC Napoli next weekend, before Liverpool travel to Milan for the first leg of an intriguing UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie.
For AC Milan, today’s match represents a key moment in their bid for a first scudetto in more than a decade. A defeat would leave them seven points back having played a game more, with Inter’s abandoned match with Bologna from last month to be rescheduled for later this month.
Stefano Pioli’s side sit third, level on 49 points with Napoli, who can take advantage of whatever result the Milan giants rustle up at Venezia tomorrow.
After their miserable stalemate with Juventus before the international break, Pioli said that his team need to win today if they want to “be close to Inter right to the end.”
Pioli is almost certain to be without starting centerback Fikayo Tomori and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with the latter still feeling the effects of an injured Achilles tendon.
The match will be one of the first to be played in front of a half-full stadium after a couple of rounds of matches with just 5,000 fans.
Stadium capacities have been a sticking point between Italy’s soccer authorities and the government all season, but last month Italian Undersecretary of State for Health Andrea Costa suggested that by the spring, Italian stadiums would be free to fill up.
Other disagreements within Serie A led president Paolo Dal Pino to resign on Tuesday.
Dal Pino stepped down ostensibly because he and his family are moving to California, but in his parting note he said that he had been frustrated by an environment “resistent to change.”
Serie A, which is to vote for a new president on Monday, has been openly hostile to the Italian Football Association’s insistence on changes to the league’s internal rules, such as letting votes pass with simple majorities.
Meanwhile, Italian soccer on Monday lost one of its most colorful character’s when Maurizio Zamparini, who sacked dozens of managers over more than three decades as a club owner, died at the age of 80.
Before their Serie C derby with ACR Messina on Wednesday, Palermo held a minute’s silence in honor of Zamparini, who as president oversaw the Sicilians’ first promotion to Serie A in 31 years and brought in a host of stars who took them into the previously unimaginable heights of European soccer.
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