A Fredy Guarin piledriver fired Inter Milan two points clear at the top of Serie A with a 1-0 win over AC Milan, for whom Mario Balotelli made his second debut on Sunday. Having failed to qualify for Europe this season, both Milan giants are desperate to make up for years of underachievement - and on this performance may now fancy their chances of a top finish, especially given Juventus's early season woes.
Inter now sit two points clear of Chievo with a maximum nine points although Roma, also on seven points, are the Nerazzurri's more notable challengers. Champions Juventus, with two losses and a draw so far, are down in 16th, eight points off the pace as they endure their worst start to a season in living memory. "Milan started well, they had us in difficulty at times but it wasn't enough," said Inter coach Roberto Mancini. "In the end, we deserved the win, but Milan are a good side and they will be battling for a top finish. Juventus as well.
"That's the beauty of football, Juventus haven't won in three games but I'm sure they will get back to being protagonists soon enough." Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic had only praise for his team, but lamented their failure to pull level. "We didn't deserve to lose. We played well, tried to win and all we lacked was a goal," said Mihajlovic. "I'm happy, I'm proud and the lads can hold their heads high. It's by playing like this that we can start to look at how well we can do in the league."
Milan shaded a lively opening half in which Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano kept the Nerazzurri defence on their toes, home 'keeper Samir Handanovic notably saving at Adriano's feet early on, while on-loan Manchster City forward Stevan Jovetic drilled just wide of Diego Lopez's post at the other end. In the last six league derbies neither side had scored more than one goal and the near capacity crowd of 79,154 fans almost saw Milan break the deadlock when Adriano blazed over while under pressure after latching on to Bacca's neat pass.
Inter were looking nervous, and Milan almost capitalised. When Giacomo Bonaventura countered on 19 minutes, his pinpoint pass found Adriano but the Brazilian was blocked by Juan Jesus as he was about to pull the trigger. On the stroke of half-time, Milan breathed a sigh of relief when Lopez produced a wonderful reflex save to deny striker Mauro Icardi from close range.
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