AC MILAN v INTER: MATCH PREVIEW

"Pride, redemption, belonging, and responsibility". There's much behind this derby, being played on a Monday for the first time. We come from the Europa League exit at the Olimpico, we have desire, anger, and a need to stand back up to close out the season in the best way and break the negative run against Inter. At the same time, the inter-city derby means a lot for our opponents, close to winning the title. Let's get into it ahead of kick-off at 20:45 CEST with our usual preview.

LATEST FROM MILANELLO
Back from the bitter ending in Rome, the Rossoneri have been preparing for the big game at San Siro since Friday. There's a five-point lead to protect over Juventus from now until the end of the season to secure the precious second-place finish. One of the crossroads of this end to the season will be AC Milan v Inter with the Rossoneri arriving with missing men in defence: Kalulu and Kjær are out through injury, and Thiaw is suspended after being booked last Sunday against Sassuolo. Therefore, the probable backline ahead of Maignan would be Calabria-Tomori-Gabbia-Theo. The choices for the rest of the pitch will also depend on how energies have been recovered over the last few days after the latest fixtures. Musah and Tomori are both on a yellow card.

Pioli on the eve of the game: "I have a lot of faith in my players, they know how important the game is. It will be fundamental not to give away chances at the start, like we have done in recent derbies. We will need to play an exceptional game, we come off the back of five consecutive defeats against them, and they have always given us problems. They deserve to win the Scudetto but we need to do everything we can to ensure it doesn't happen tomorrow".

LATEST FROM INTER
Complete side for Simone Inzaghi and the "usual line-up", if he makes no last minute changes: Sommer; Pavard, Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian or Dumfries, Barella, Çalhanoğlu, Mhkitaryan, Dimarco; Thuram, Martínez. The Nerazzurri haven't lost in the league since September, since Inter 1-2 Sassuolo and have won five more points than the Rossoneri in the second half of the campaign so far. An important journey that brings them, with a win, to Scudetto celebrations at the end of these 90 minutes. The only absentee for the visitors is Cuadrado, for muscle fatigue: Mkhitaryan is on a booking, no one is suspended.

On Sunday, ahead of the game Inzaghi spoke: "There are great feelings. We have worked hard and well in the last few days, we know it could be a special day for us. We have to give our all against a side that will do everything to make it a difficult for us".

PRE-MATCH NUMBERS

• The derby between AC Milan and Inter will be played on a Monday for the first time in history in all competitions. With this, the Milano derby will have been played at least once on every day of the week. 
• The most common scoreline between AC Milan and Inter in Serie A is 1-1, result in 27 meetings: the last dates back to 7 November 2021 (goal from de Vrij and a penalty from Çalhanoğlu).
• Inter (+26) and AC Milan (+12) are two of three sides, alongside Bologna (+14), with the highest number of points won this season compared to this point in Serie A 2022/23.
• AC Milan is unbeaten in 16 of the last 17 league games (12W, 3D) and has scored 37 goals (2.2 on average); the last defeat came on 18 February against Monza.

WHERE TO WATCH AC MILAN v INTER
In Italy, the match will be broadcast by DAZN. To watch AC Milan v Inter in a different country, you can consult the "AC Milan on TV" webpage, by clicking on the heading "Abroad". On the Rossoneri channels, Milan TV will provide live matchday coverage starting from 19:45 CEST and continuing up until shortly before kick-off. After full-time, there will be interviews and Coach Pioli's press conference. Also, not to be missed is the coverage on acmilan.com, the AC Milan Official App, our official Social Media profiles and WhatsApp.

LATEST FROM SERIE A
Andrea Colombo will referee the Derby di Milano: at 33 he has only once officiated for the Rossoneri, Monza 2-4 AC Milan, and three times for the Nerazzurri with three wins.

Matchday 33 in Serie A began with two games on Friday night: Genoa 0-1 Lazio and Cagliari 2-2 Juventus. Two games on Saturday: Empoli 1-0 Napoli and Verona 1-0 Udinese. Here are Sunday's results: Sassuolo 0-3 Lecce, Torino 0-0 Frosinone, Salernitana 0-2 Fiorentina, Monza 1-2 Atalanta. Today, the weekend closes out with Roma v Bologna at 18:30 CEST and AC Milan v Inter at 20:45 CEST.

This is the current league table di Serie A: Inter* 83; Milan* 69; Juventus 64; Bologna* 59; Roma** 55; Atalanta* 54; Lazio 52; Napoli 49; Fiorentina* 47; Torino 46; Monza 43; Genoa 39; Lecce 35; Cagliari 32; Hellas Verona and Empoli 31; Udinese* and Frosinone 28; Sassuolo 26; Salernitana 15. (* = a game in hand; ** = two games in hand)

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