Inter cruise to Milan derby win at San Siro

A solitary goal from Lautaro Martinez was enough for Inter in a Milan derby they thoroughly dominated on Sunday evening.

I Nerazzurri were the much, much better side on the night, comfortably controlling the tempo of the game throughout.

Inter dominated the opening exchanges and were denied the opening goal by a stunning save from Ciprian Tatarusanu. The veteran goalkeeper reacted brilliantly to tip a venomous strike from Lautaro Martinez over the bar to keep Inter at bay.

Nicolo Barella would come close a few minutes later, with the dynamic midfielder just heading wide of the near post after connecting with Milan Skriniar’s cross into the penalty area.

I Nerazzurri would finally, deservedly, take the lead in the 33rd minute through Lautaro. The captain for the night peeled off at the near post at a corner kick to flick a head into the top corner of the net and make it 1-0.

The token home team for the evening continued their dominance at the start of the second half as Lautaro forced Tatarusanu into another instinctive save, this time at his near post from a strike from the right of the box.

AC Milan did give it a bit more of a go after that, but simply didn’t have the quality to get anywhere near Inter’s defensive third. To put it bluntly: they looked bloody awful in the final third, devoid of ideas.

In the dying embers of the game, Latuaro through he’d made it 2-0 after latching onto a loose ball in the box and slipping the ball under the onrushing Tatarusanu. Following a lengthy VAR check however, the goal was ruled out for offside.

The win sees Inter stay in second place in the Serie A table, while Milan drop down to sixth following a horrid run of form at the start of 2023.