Due to the injury of their main attacker Leao, the Red and Blacks lost their most important attacking force on the left side of the field for this match. Milan lined up in 4231 with defenders Kjaer, Tomori, TheoHernandez, Calabria, backs Krunic, Tonali, attacking midfielder Bennacer, wings Saelemaekers. Brahin Diaz, forward Giroud.
FC Internazionale Milano (football club)
Laying out a 352 with Acerbi, Darmian, Bastoni at the back, Dumfries, Dimarco on the wings, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan in the midfield, and Dzeko and Lautaro up front.
(Both teams start)
Inter looked strong from the beginning of the game, Milan was immediately pressed, only 7 minutes, Calhanoglu left corner kick pass, Dzeko in front of Calabria directly high leg across the goal, Milan was immediately in 0-1 down!
At the 11:00 mark, Milan's attack was cut off by Inter on the center line and a quick pass to the left was sent by Dimarco to the outside of Milan's penalty area. Lautaro intentionally missed the ball, allowing Mkhitaryan to shoot straight at the back from 13 yards.
Milan's defense was passive from the start of the game, and there were obvious problems with the link between the backs. In the second goal, Tonali was already chasing at full speed but couldn't catch up, while Krunic was out of position, and Milan's backline was too deep to defend against Inter's strikers, leaving a clear distance and space between them and the front.
The tactic used by Inter was to have two strikers at the front and then support the ball when it was passed to the strikers, allowing the wings and attacking midfielders to move up, but of course Inter's three fullbacks were able to attack their sides, but
AC Milan (football club)
In the absence of Leao's lack of ability to push Inter's wingbacks back, Inter's midfield can have two wingbacks to join the five, in this case Bennacer and Brahim Diaz are caught in the circle can not get the ball, in order to support, Milan's back naturally have to go forward, this time they and the distance between the defenders will be pulled apart, for a long time Milan forward It is difficult to get the ball, Giroud is also trapped in the defensive formation, and the left back of Theo Hernandez in front of the field can not hold the ball to support the situation can not wait for him to go forward!
At 17:00 ennacer was injured and forced to be replaced, Pioli could only replace Messias to play on the right side, but BrahimDiaz was pinned down in the center by the Inter midfield, making it difficult to move the ball to the side.
And what's worse is that the referee Manzano became the protagonist of the game, he obviously has a wider standard for physical penalties, in the beginning of the game on the Inter a few intense physical collision were not penalized, in fact, in many of these can be regarded as a foul, the Milan players began to be distracted by the impact of the players, and the Inter players have found that this is the case, so they take advantage of the situation, and then the next Inter's Inter's actions are getting bigger and bigger, and they keep putting down
AC Milan (football club)
players, and late in the first half there were even several near elbows, but the referees most likely wouldn't blow the call.
AC Milan (football club)
The players were furious but there was nothing they could do but get messed up by Inter's tough tactics
Milan's defenders were too far back, giving Inter's forwards easy access to the ball against the defense, which created a lot of offense, and Krunic had a hard time to support, Tonali had to keep returning to the back of the field, Milan's offense in the first half of the whole disintegrated.
