Inter loses the derby and Felipe Caicedo did not debut at San Siro

AC Milan met again this Saturday with a league victory in the Milan derby against the leader, Inter, six years after the last time, coming back in the final quarter of an hour and achieving a transcendental 2-1 that reopened the fight for the Series A title.

A brace by Frenchman Olivier Giroud, who replaced Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was injured, sank an Inter team that had been superior until the vibrant final quarter of an hour and allowed AC Milan to move to just one point behind the Interistas, leaders, with a party less.

Pushed by the Spaniard Brahim Díaz, who jumped onto the pitch after the restart and was decisive in making it 1-1, AC Milan knocked out an Inter team that had only lost once this year in Serie A, last October against Lazio.

And that until the final quarter of an hour the interista team had been the absolute dominator of the match. Croatian Ivan Perisic unlocked it when he finished off a corner kick by Turkey’s Hakan Calhanoglu ten minutes before the break and only an outstanding performance by French goalkeeper Mike Maignan prevented the derby from becoming an interista thrashing.

The replacement for Gianluigi Donnarumma, who left for Paris Saint-Germain for free last summer after not renewing his contract, was decisive with spectacular saves against Argentine Lautaro Martínez, Dutch Denzel Dumfries and Croatian Marcelo Brozovic in the first half and He kept alive an AC Milan that was proud to change the history of the derby.

The entry of Spaniard Brahim Díaz at match time, when Inter continued to control the match, gave AC Milan a new rhythm against an Inter team that lost Perisic due to muscular discomfort and collapsed in the space of five minutes, between the 75 and 79.

A ball recovered by Giroud in the center of the field after a clash with the recently entered Chilean Alexis Sánchez opened a Milan counterattack in which Brahim unleashed a shot with his right leg that, deflected by Alessandro Bastoni, was finished off by Giroud himself, after a great vertical run.

It was a psychological blow for Inter, against AC Milan who completed the comeback four minutes later, again with a masterful move by Giroud, after an assist from Davide Calabria. The French veteran found a hole in the mesh of the interista defense for a low and curved shot that entered the second post for the definitive 2-1.

The newly signed Nerazzurri, Ecuadorian Felipe Caicedo, was not on the bench due to a “load in the adductors” detected according to a club report that was published on Twitter when the starting eleven was already public.

Philippanther33, joined DT Simone Inzaghi’s squad the previous Saturday, after completing the operation with Genoa, who loaned him out until the end of the season (June 30).

The victory was key for AC Milan, which completely reopened the fight for the Scudetto in Serie A and complicated the work of Inter, who will visit Napoli the next day. (D)