This Derby will be different than any Derby della Madonnina in the past 90 years, as it will be the first Derby held in a San Siro owned by Milan and Inter instead of the municipality of Milano. With the deed having been turned over earlier this month, there is literal ownership of this match. Unfortunately, it is an Inter home Derby, so they will reap the financial benefits as well as have the support of the "home" crowd. And even more unfortunately, the local authorities still seem to be playing for the Marotta League, as they imposed a last minute ban on Milan Curva Sud's main banner. An absurd restriction, considering that it was Inter and their Curva Nord who were proven to have been completely infiltrated and the stadium run by mafia families on their matchdays, not Milan, the supposed reason for the whole Double Curva investigation. After more than a year of unfair bans and sanctions, Milan fans just want a Derby to call our own.
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| Last year, Gabbia made Inter's Derby our own with a late winner. |
This summer has been a very challenging one for Inter. They started it off by setting the record for losing in the Champions League Final by the biggest margin ever, 5-0 to Donnarumma's PSG. Having missed out on their other three trophy opportunities that season, that left them at zero for four trophies. Remember, they lost one of those trophies directly to us, and Milan also knocked them out of one the Coppa Italia, so basically, we personally prevented two of those four trophies. We definitely did our part. But they were not done.
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| The Curva Sud: "Zero Titles: Yesterday Istanbul, Today, Munich, Tomorrow everyone to the psychologist" |
Well Simone Inzaghi was. He slithered off to Saudi Arabia to manage Al-Hilal for a giant paycheck, leaving Inter high and dry. However, there were five trophies Inter told us they would win, and so they went to the Club World Cup. And there, they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Thiago Silva's Fluminense. And, for good measure, Thiago Silva's Fluminense also eliminated Simone Inzaghi's Al-Hilal in the Quarterfinal. All snakes exterminated. And while we were told multiple times Inter would win five trophies, their season ended with zero trophies. Also known as Zero Tituli. (And that doesn't even include the subsequent drama with Lautaro Martínez, Çalhanoglu, etc. all summer, either.)
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| A special logo for a special season. |
Two points separate Inter and Milan going into this one, with Inter tied with Roma at the top of the table and Milan in third place. (All those dropped points vs. newly promoted teams suddenly seem very costly now, right?) But a striking difference is that Inter have won eight matches and lost three. While Milan have won only six, but lost only one, with those four pesky draws both lifting us up and dragging us down. Make of it what you will, but though Inter have won twice more, they have also lost twice more than Milan, so they are, in fact, beatable.
Their most recent match ahead of the international break was a 2-0 win over Lazio. For that matchup, their new manager, Cristian Chivu, lined up a 3-5-2 with: Sommer; Akanji, Acerbi, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, The TurkishTraitor™, Sučić, Dimarco; Bonny, and Lautaro Martínez. Chivu has a few players out to injury, including backup goalkeeper Di Gennaro, Mkhitaryan, Darmian, and Denzel Dumfries, who picked up an injury over the international break. Personally, I think he didn't have the will to face a a Milan without Theo Hernández.
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| The manager could be a cardboard cutout, so long as Marotta is behind him. |
Allegri also lost a player to injury over the international break, as Athekame came back from his Switzerland U21 duties with a calf muscle issue, and Santi Gimenez has not fully recovered from his ankle injury, so will not make it on Sunday, either. However, over the break, he recovered Rabiot, and Pulisic and Jashari both got a full 90 minutes in their legs in a training friendly, so are fully available for Sunday's match as well. No word on Balentien, so I expect he will also be missing again.
However, with both Leão and Pulisic both healthy and available from the first minute, this will be their first opportunity to play together since the first few minutes of the first match of the season before Leão's injury. There is a lot of discussion about who Allegri will line up on the left. Allegri defended Estupiñan's poor performance last time, but then did concede he had expected more. Bartesaghi played a full 180 minutes for Italy U21 over the break, but Estupiñan struggled against Virtus Entella last week, so many assume that the young Bartesaghi will get the start. (Or at least we hope he will. In our dreams, we still have Theo, of course.)
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| The kind of Derby dreams are made of. |
Of course, after going through ridiculous amounts of sanctions and even more slander due to eight criminals who held them hostage for years and irresponsible prosecutors, media, and even their own club, Milan's Curva Sud have suffered yet another blow. Having had no banners allowed all last season, agreements were finally reached as to certain banners being allowed once again since the end of September. The "Milan Curva Sud" banner was perma-banned, so the new main banner was "Sodalizio Rossanero." This was a name that had no links to violence or anything in the past, yet "Sodalizio" is commonly used amongst other fan groups throughout Italy.
Now, suddenly, just three days before facing a stadium full of Inter fans for the big Derby, the local authorities informed Milan's Curva Sud they could not use that banner anymore, either. No reason, no warning, but the timing has Marotta written all over it. And here we are again, with another sanction against the Curva Sud ahead of a big match. It's not enough that the legendary coreografia is still banned. Or that instead of getting the uniform away ticket prices Milan asked for throughout Serie A, Milan's Curva Sud have faced increasing problems with away tickets this season. But this last minute sanction is specifically singling out Milan's Curva Sud, even though it was Inter's Curva Nord who had the major criminal offenses and the crime families involved all the way to the top of their club. It's too much.
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| Milan's Curva Sud will not be able to produce their legendary coreografia like last year. |
The news of the clubs being able to finally purchase the San Siro changes us from being renters to having a home of our own. And it is a little bittersweet, as it is the beginning of the end of the San Siro, with the new stadium project now officially becoming a reality. But amidst the emotions of new stadium ownership come the same demonstrations of Milan's lack of any political clout whatsoever in Italy anymore, with our Curva Sud targeted yet again with another absurd sanction ahead of one of the biggest matches of the season. And not a single statement from the club, either. Again. It is a form of emotional abuse at this point for our fans, when all we want is a Derby to call our own.