Olivier Giroud completely tilts derby and brings AC Milan back to title fight


Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 7:55 PM• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 20:01

AC Milan can dream of the league title in Italy again. The team of coach Stefano Pioli threatened to lose to Internazionale on Saturday and therefore be ten loss points away from the leader, but Olivier Giroud completely turned the game over with a late double: 1-2. As a result, Milan is only four loss points less than Inter: the gap in the ranking is only one point, but Inter still have one game left. Denzel Dumfries and Stefan de Vrij were on the field at Inter for ninety minutes.

Inter led 1-0 at halftime and that lead was more than deserved. Simone Inzaghi’s team, on paper the home team in the shared stadium, started the match energetically and put Milan under constant pressure. In the tenth minute, Inter seemed to take the lead with a powerful header from Dumfries at the far post, but that goal was cancelled. After all, Ivan Perisic, the assist man, was served in an offside position. Furthermore, it was thanks to Mike Maignan that Milan held out for a relatively long time in the first half.

The goalkeeper of i Rossoneric got his hand to the ball with a reflex after a placed bet by Brozovic was deflected by Pierre Kalulu. He also parried a powder from Dumfries: up close, the the Dutch international did not give his shot enough direction. Seven minutes before half time, Maignan also prevented a goal from Lautaro Martínez, but Inter opened the score from the ensuing corner. Hakan Çalhanoglu’s turning in cross was appreciated by Perisic, who was free in the penalty area and took the ball from the air on foot: 1-0.

Maignan took a risk in first-half stoppage time by getting far from his goal on a pass from Brozovic to Çalhanoglu. Outside his own penalty area, Maignan managed to put Çalhanoglu off the ball. Then Maignan lost the ball himself, but Inter were unable to take advantage of the remarkable situation. Incidentally, Milan was not completely indifferent, but the Pioli team actually only reported in the last ten minutes before halftime. Samir Handanovic parried a long shot from Sandro Tonali. Shortly after the break Tonali tried again from a distance; via Dumfries the ball grazed the post.

The explosive Dumfries was involved a lot in the game; fellow defender De Vrij was less noticeable in the center back. Inter held Milan in check for a long time, but Alexis Sánchez’s loss of ball after a fierce duel with Olivier Giroud resulted in a counterattack from which Milan came alongside. Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni got his toes against a low shot by Brahim Díaz, inadvertently enabling Giroud to equalize from close range. A few minutes later, Giroud completed Milan’s surprising comeback. The injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s stand-in was served in the penalty area by Davide Calabria, easily turned away from De Vrij and found the left corner. Deep into stoppage time, Theo Hernández was shown a red card for a nasty tackle from behind to Dumfries, ending Milan with ten men.

No. Team m W G V +/- Pnt
1 Internazionale 23 16 5 2 35 53
2 AC Milan 24 16 4 4 23 52
3 Napoli 23 15 4 4 27 49
4 Atalanta 22 12 7 3 18 43
5 Juventus 23 12 6 5 13 42
6 AS Roma 24 12 3 9 10 39
7 Fiorentina 22 11 3 8 11 36
8 Lazio 23 10 6 7 7 36
9 Hellas Verona 23 9 6 8 5 33
10 Torino 22 9 5 8 9 32
11 Sassuolo 23 7 8 8 1 29
12 empoli 23 8 5 10 -10 29
13 Bologna 22 8 3 11 -8 27
14 special 23 7 4 12 -18 25
15 Udinese 22 5 9 8 -5 24
16 sampdoria 23 5 5 13 -12 20
17 Venice 22 4 6 12 -20 18
18 Cagliari 23 3 8 12 -22 17
19 Genoa 24 1 11 12 -25 14
20 Salernitana 22 3 2 17 -39 10