INTER v AC MILAN: A PREVIOUS MEETING

The rivalry between Inter and AC Milan is one of those rivalries that go down in every chapter of the history of football. Every time it comes around again, the Derby not only paralyses Milan - the only city in Europe to house two European champions - but also attracts the attention of all football fans. It goes without saying, therefore, that there are dozens of memorable past encounters between the two teams. There is one period in particular, however, that often stands out in the memories of AC Milan fans: the spring of 2003. A period of 31 days, between April and May, in which the Rossoneri and the Nerazzurri met three times. This is the story of the first of those three occasions.

SETTING THE SCENE
Matchday 28 of the season arrived at an interesting time for both teams, as it came after the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final (0-0 in Amsterdam against Ajax for AC Milan). In the league, the Rossoneri were coming off a period of poor form, with 10 points from the last eight games - including a defeat to Parma in their league game - that had put a fair distance between Ancelotti's team and the top of the table, with the top spot being eight points away at that point. Inter Milan were also up there battling it out, -5 points behind Juventus. But the Derby is the Derby, and despite the fatigue from their European commitment Ancelotti turned to a starting eleven with serious attacking threat: Dida in goal; Šimić, Nesta, Maldini and Costacurta forming the defensive line; Gattuso, Rui Costa and Ambrosini in the middle of the park; then Serginho in behind the two strikers, Andriy Shevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi.

ROSSONERI KICK OFF AT FULL SPEED
AC Milan started off the better side, with Gattuso's 25-yard effort forcing Toldo into action in the 5th minute. It was all AC Milan once again when Zanetti cleared Rui Costa's effort off the line. Then came a couple of Nerazzurri chances from Emre. The Rossoneri kept pushing on with an inspired Shevchenko, first striking powerfully from outside the box with an effort that went just wide of Toldo's goal, then with a fine cross for Serginho, whose effort was denied by a Nerazzurro deflection. The Rossoneri's last chance of a hard-fought first half in front of San Siro's stunning setting came from our Ukrainian striker, who got a touch to Costacurta's effort from outside the box: but the ball scraped just past the post and went wide.

RUI COSTA TO SUPERPIPPO
The first shock of the second half came in the 52nd minute when an aerial collision between Vieri and Maldini left the Rossoneri captain worse off, Danish player Laursen came on to replace him. A few moments later AC Milan came close to scoring twice with Shevchenko: first Cannavaro stopped the Rossoneri number 7, who had been put through by Gattuso; then, later on in the same play, Materazzi got back to clear a cross just before it could reach Shevchenko. It felt like a goal was coming and sure enough, it arrived in the 62nd minute: Inter squandered possession in the build-up and the ball fell to the feet of Rui Costa, who picked out Inzaghi with a 35-yard pass down the middle that dissected the Nerazzurri. SuperPippo was quick to shrug off Cannavaro's marking and nullify Toldo's attempt to smother him, finishing clinically to make it 1-0 to the Rossoneri. In the last half hour of the match Inter ended up with 10 players due to a red card for Cordoba, but the score didn't change and apart from a couple of chances from Recoba, dealt with by Dida, it was AC Milan who came closest to scoring. The 185th Milan Derby ended 0-1, with the Rossoneri gaining on the Nerazzurri in the standings. The two teams would meet again that season, but that's another story...

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