CBC Sports Online's soccer expert, John Molinaro, takes you inside the world of soccer and offers his insights about the action on the pitch and in the front office.
The Milan derby
Friday, October 27, 2006 | 02:22 PM ET
The eyes of the soccer world will be focused on Milan Saturday night when the first major city derby of the Italian league season takes place.
AC Milan and Inter Milan, two of the top teams in Serie A, will butt heads in what is historically been one of the most hotly contested matches in world soccer. Stoking the flames of the bitter city rivalry is the fact that the clubs share the same stadium, the legendary Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
With Juventus relegated to Serie B, the Derby della Madonnina, as the Milan derby is known in Italian, takes on even more significance this season, especially for AC Milan.
Inter tops the Italian league standings with 18 points, while AC Milan sits in 12th place, 11 points off the pace of their city rivals.
AC Milan started the season -8 points for their involvement in the Italian match-fixing scandal, and has managed to claw their way back into the positive side of the ledger, but they need a win on Saturday to have any hope of catching Inter.
"The derby is always the derby, but this time its different. We need to win to start closing the 11-point gap which separates us from Inter," AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti told reporters this week.
AC Milan holds the advantage in the overall series (104 victories compared to only 88 for Inter), but Inter are brimming with confidence following their 4-1 dismantling of Tuscan-side Livorno on Wednesday.
"If they lose, they will end up even further back in the table and it is they who cannot afford to make any more errors," said Inter striker Hernan Crespo, who has also played for AC Milan during his distinguished career.
Scoring has been a major problem for AC Milan. The Rossoneri (the red and blacks) have tallied a meagre seven goals through the first eight games of the season - hardly a surprise considering the sale of Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea in the off-season.
Inter is vulnerable in the centre of defence, so look for forwards Alberto Gilardino and Ricardo Oliveira to attack their city rivals through the middle.
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About the Author
John F. Molinaro is a reporter for CBC Sport Online whose chief love is international soccer. John served as senior editor of Sports Online's Euro 2004 website, which helped him win a CBC.ca Award of Excellence, and was the driving force behind our coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He holds an honours BA in sociology from York University and a print journalism diploma from Sheridan College, and is also the author of The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time (Stewart House, 2002).
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Comments
Carlo
toronto
Go Milan! Inter sucks. Materazzi is a bum and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a stiff.
Posted October 27, 2006 03:19 PM
manny lima
toronto
im portugues go inter go figo 2 goals
Posted October 27, 2006 08:31 PM
Roberto Solano
FORZA INTER!!! Inter Milan is the best team around rite now. Milan is going down. Scudetto is ours. We have the best strikers, a strong midfeild, and a tuff defence. Inter is going to win both derbys this years. GO INTER!!!
Posted October 28, 2006 02:48 AM
mohamed dahir salad
yemen
just, so everyboy knows that inter will win this time ... becouse milan are not at their shape these days.
they sold sheva and no one else can hurt us!
Posted October 28, 2006 07:36 AM
mohamed dahir salad
yemen
just, everyboy knows that inter will win this time ... becouse milan are not at their shape these days.
the sold sheva and no one else can hurt us!
Posted October 28, 2006 07:36 AM
Gino Gennaro
Edmonton
Football is a world game and the only thing that matters is the euro cup and the world cup and everything else is secondary.
Posted October 28, 2006 01:22 PM