Duels on the flanks and derby killers: The five key battles in Milan vs. Inter

By: Isak Möller

It’s a big one at San Siro tonight, namely the Derby della Madonnina, and it’s a fixture that always comes with some exciting player battles.

Milan have a point to prove after their disappointing mid-week defeat to Bologna, while Inter are eager to end their seven-game winless run in the Derby della Madonnina. In short, it could be a very exciting one at San Siro.

Ruben Amorim has some key players back at his disposal, including Mario Gila and Adrien Rabiot, but the key player battles might involve others. As always, we have highlighted five of the battles we think will be crucial for the outcome of the game.

AC Milan vs. Inter: Five key battles

Starting in defence for Milan, I reckon Koni De Winter will have his hands full with Marcus Thuram. The Frenchman loves the derby and has been known to make life difficult for Rossoneri centre-backs before.

The feeling is that Strahinja Pavlovic will be more busy with Pio Esposito, since they are both very strong in the air, so the ‘ground due’, so to speak, will most likely be De Winter against Thuram. The Belgian is coming off a pretty big error against Bologna too, so he needs revenge.

Diawara performed well against Udinese in the same role but didn’t have as much success against Bologna. Clearly, however, Amorim feels that he’s more defensively solid than Pervis Estupinan and Davide Bartesaghi.

Further up the pitch, I expect Christian Pulisic to drop down a lot to retrieve the ball and also to move in between the lines. With Diego Moreira starting to the right (more on him below), these movements should be mostly on the left, where Nicolo Barella resides.

The Inter midfielder always puts in a fantastic shift defensively and he will surely look to stop Pulisic, who is one of the biggest threats to the Nerazzurri. With good enough movement, however, it will be difficult to stop the American.

On the right-hand side of the attack, Diego Moreira is expected to start and this is a great opportunity for him to show that he can actually play there. All of his success so far has been on the opposite flank, so there are definitely doubts about what he can do.

Up against one of the best wing-backs in the league, namely Federico Dimarco, he would definitely send a signal with a strong performance. In attack, he will need to find ways to beat the Italian, while covering enough to limit his space in the defensive phase too.

Finally, Goncalo Ramos needs to step it up goalscoring-wise and hopefully, that means he will be in the penalty box more than he has been so far. If so, there will surely be some great battles with Manuel Akanji, who is very solid.

Now, I don’t expect the Portuguese striker to all of a sudden stay rooted inside the box, so there will likely be battles with all three centre-backs. Most of them should be with Akanji, though, especially when acting as a focal point in the hold-up play.