Inter Milan 0-1 A.C. Milan: Nightmare Start For Inter

A.C. Milan have the lead in the Milan Derby after only five minutes thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic...and Marco Materazzi.

On a counter-attack, Ibrahimovic surged into the box and was lazily tripped by Materazzi, forcing the referee to award a penalty. It wasn’t Ibrahimovic’s first surge forward, Inter have allowed him plenty of space in the early going. Both Lucio and Materazzi were in the vicinity and Ibrahimovic didn’t do anything spectacular to earn the spot kick, Materazzi just clumsily tripped him. It was a soft penalty in terms of what was done to earn it, but it was a stonewall penalty as far as the laws of the game go.

Ibrahimovic stepped up to the spot and put a great penalty kick into the back of the net, putting Milan up 1-0 on the 5th minute. Ibra and his teammates celebrated in front of the ultras of Inter, his former club.

Rafa Benitez’s side have a lot of work to do to get back into the game, and it won’t help them that their defense without Walter Samuel looks shaky. The unorthodox Inter team selected by Benitez is operating in a fairly rigid 4-4-2 diamond formation, and they hardly look comfortable in it.