AC Milan Vs. Inter Milan, 2012 Serie A: Inter Earn Surprise Win

A surprise twist from the Derby Della Madonnina - Inter Milan have just handed second place AC Milan their first home league loss in more than a year. For a long while it looked as though Milan were going to have the better of things - they had (by far) the majority of possession and had a big edge in the shot count too, but the hosts were unimaginative and wasteful in front of goal while Inter looked ready to seize whichever opportunities appeared.

Inter very nearly took the lead in a messy first ten minutes when Thiago Motta nodded a Maicon free kick past Christian Abbiati and into the back of the net only for the goal to be flagged off - a perfectly executed offside trap had caught him and the linesman had spotted it. Much of the first half featured two teams struggling to impress, but the match burst to life just before halftime when a series of chances cropped up at both ends of the pitch, capped by Mark van Bommel's 20-yard effort cannoning back off Julio Cesar's crossbar.

The game needed a goal and it got one shortly after the break when Diego Milito took advantage of Ignazio Abate's inability to cut out a low pass from Javier Zanetti, and the striker tore into the box, opened up his body and finished sweetly at the far post. Milan had no answer, and Inter looked the more threatening for the remainder of the match. It was a sad display by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexandre Pato up front, and the losers will be desperately disappointed that they failed to put together a single coherent attack after going behind - only a few goalmouth scrambles gave Milan any hope that they'd equalise.

Inter, for their part, saw out the game superbly, and were well deserving of the win after a period in the first half where they looked like they'd never manage to do much to a well-marshalled Milan defence. This is a major boon to their hopes of retaining their Champions League place, and a big blow to the Scudetto holders to boot, who could have gone ahead of league leaders Juventus with a win. In other words, it's been a pretty good day for the Nerazzuri.