Portuguese forward left Internazionale in his wake with a fine performance that shows why the club fought to retain himRafael Leão signed off, as he so often does, with his favourite emoji, the little man riding a surfboard. He had given no interviews after Milan’s game against Internazionale so we had to make do with a two-word social media post, less a comment than a vibe: “Derby Waves.”Perhaps that was a perfect synopsis of a game of relentless, roiling drama. An evening when two halves of a city took turns to ride the crests and then tumble back beneath the water, swept along by irresistible tides that would not allow anyone to stop for breath. Continue reading...
On an opening weekend of thrills and spills, Milan looked far more self-assured than their city rivals even as both sides wonThe only thing missing from Serie A’s opening weekend was a bleary-eyed traveller bursting into the room and demanding to know what year it is. Rodrigo Becão scoring a header against Milan? How did a story this unlikely get stuck on repeat? The Udinese centre-back’s three goals in four seasons against the Rossoneri are more than he has managed against every other opponent combined in his professional career.Six hundred miles away, Romelu Lukaku netted on his Inter debut against Lecce, exactly as he did when he joined for the first time in 2019. The shirt on his back has...
There was no danger of a comeback at Sassuolo, no chance of history repeating. This is a different team in a different timeNobody could mistrust a 3-0 lead more than the Milan supporters who saw their team throw that scoreline away in the 2005 Champions League final. The scars of defeat to Liverpool never fully healed, not even after their team took revenge two years later. Fans self-diagnosed with “Istanbul Syndrome” to explain the foreboding they felt whenever their team found itself in a winning position thereafter.Fresh outbreaks were reported in the days leading up to Milan’s season-ending game away to Sassuolo. The Rossoneri needed just a point against mid-table opponents to seal their first Serie A title for 11...
Title race will go down to wire but if Milan win it the ‘coast to coast’ goal against Atalanta will be season’s standout momentRafael Leão held his head in his hands, but this was no gesture of despair. The Portuguese forward had just watched his Milan teammate, Theo Hernández, score the goal that would put them within a point of claiming the Scudetto, sealing a 2-0 win over Atalanta. He should have been celebrating but needed to stop for a moment and try to fathom what he had just seen.Theo had set off from the left corner of Milan’s penalty area moments before. When the ball ran to him from a sliding challenge by Rade Krunic on Jérémie Boga, he...
José Mourinho’s Roma could not deal with Inter’s power while Olivier Giroud once again came to Milan’s rescue at LazioAmid a breathless finish to the Serie A season, spare a thought for your narrators who don’t know where to begin. In Empoli, where Napoli surrendered their title bid by conceding three times in seven minutes to opponents who had not won a game since December? Or at San Siro, where Internazionale thumped a Roma side led by José Mourinho, the man who led them to the treble, and who arrived on a 12-game unbeaten run in the league?Perhaps we should start in Rome, where Milan kept the title race alive with a 91st-minute strike from a 21-year-old midfielder who almost...