Antonio Conte’s Inter are now four points clear of AC Milan
and in the last six matches, they have not lost, whereas, the Rossoneri are
experiencing a bumpy ride all of a sudden as their hopes for the Scudetto
suffered a blow. The Milan Derby had the hype of the past and all eyes were
waiting to see the battle between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku – in the
end, Lukaku had the last laugh.
Stefano Pioli made seven changes to the starting XI compared
to the line-up which drew against Red Star as Davide Calabria, Simon Kjaer,
Sandro Tonali, Franck Kessie, Ante Rebic, Hakan Calhanoglu, Alexis Saelemaekers
and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all came into the team.
It was a perfect start for Inter!
Lukaku escaped down the right and crossed for Lautaro
Martinez to head home after just five minutes.
Kjaer went into the book inside the 11th minute for tripping
Lautaro as the Argentine spearheaded a counter. Then Calabria experienced
alert-moments later as Lautaro was played in behind by a nice through ball from
Eriksen, though the Milan full-back intervened well at the far post to prevent
the arriving Perisic from having a big chance.
Milan’s first chance on goal came in the following minute as
pinball inside the Inter box resulted in Ibrahimovic using an audacious
back-heel to divert the ball goalwards, but Handanovic leapt well to catch in
both hands.
The two-man frontline of Lukaku and Lautaro continued to
cause Milan all kinds of problems for the Rossoneri’s defence, and Donnarumma
will have been relieved to see the former drag his shot wide in the 21st minute
having spun around inside the box.
Theo Hernandez had a big chance to level the game on the
half-hour mark as he brought the ball down inside the box as Kessie’s dink was
not properly cleared, but the Frenchman dragged his shot wide of the left post
with Handanovic stranded.
Inter remained dominant throughout the first half,
especially on the break, with both strikers spurning good chances to double
their side’s lead and Milan Skriniar meeting a Christian Eriksen free-kick to
send a powerful header just over the bar with the last action before the
interval.
The Rossoneri came out purposefully after half-time and
three stunning saves at the start of the second half from Inter goalkeeper
Samir Handanovic kept his side in front.
First, he exhibited quick reflexes to get down and parry a
bullet header from Ibrahimovic, then made himself big to beat away another
header from this Swede, this time from point-blank range. Seconds later he
leapt to tip a Sandro Tonali effort over the bar.
Milan continued to push and Ibrahimovic almost found the
perfect knockdown into the path of Kessie after Calhanoglu’s dink, but an
excellent recovery challenge prevented the Ivorian from a clear-cut chance.
But hose stops proved crucial when 10 minutes later MartÃnez
finished a fine, flowing Inter move to score his 13th league goal of the season
to give his side some breathing space.
Lukaku started the move, laying off to Achraf Hakimi, who
darted inside to find Eriksen.
Eriksen then fed the onrushing Ivan Perisic, who squared the
first time for the grateful striker to tap home.
When the Rossoneri were trying to regroup and Zlatan and his
mates searching for the way to claw back, Lukaku made sure of a fourth
successive league win for Inter with a wonderful goal in the 66th minute.
After collecting a long ball, he swivelled to run at the
heart of Milan’s defence and beat Donnarumma eliciting applause from
Ibrahimovic at the other end of the pitch.
Inter had been the better side and deserve the accolades.
Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 21/02/2021 Inter thrash AC Milan
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