Fireworks In Milan

On Saturday evening in Milan, Internazionale will attempt to shut the door on their rivals, AC Milan's Scudetto hopes. After a summer in which Italy won the 2006 World Cup, domestic football in Italy was at the centre of attention after charges of corruption within the game. The result of which saw punishments for Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina.

Inter Milan often criticised for being a 'nearly club' and a bunch of underachievers despite huge outlays in transfer fees year in and year out, were crowned champions of Italy. A title by default, or were they given what was rightfully theirs? Rumours of corruption and scandal within Italian football is nothing new, are we to believe that the season of 2005/06 was the only one tainted? Surely it would be naive to believe that is the case, even without concrete proof, the suspicion is justified. Has the football world wrongly been criticising Inter all this time? The perennial underachievers who could not make full use of Moratti's expenditure, are they infact looking for their third successive Serie A title (given that Inter have ended the past two seasons behind Juventus and Milan)? Some may claim that, others will say they are looking for their second in a row, and some would even say they are not the real champions at all. Whichever angle you look at it, on Saturday, Inter can deliver a knock out blow to their neighbours.

AC Milan began the season with an eight point handicap (following the corruption scandal after appeals), but arguably the biggest handicap was no longer being able to call on the services of prolific Ukrainian forward, Andrei Shevchenko. Although Shevchenko's move to Chelsea has caused him some strain and stress also, the impact has so far looked bigger on his former club. The forward players that would be relied upon to ensure Shevchenko's departure was not so heavily felt were Filippo Inzaghi, Alberto Gilardino (both part of Italy's World Cup winning squad) and Ricardo Oliveira. Inzaghi started the season on fire, and so did Milan winning their first six games (2 in the Champions League and 4 in Serie A). However, the past month has seen a dreadful set of results and an especially toothless attack. In the past five games in the league, Milan have managed only two goals and recorded only one victory. Gilardino has been firing blanks, Oliveira has struggled to find goals too and the dry spell has hit Inzaghi too. The burden has fallen on Kaka, and at times he has often looked like a man who wishes he had a Shevchenko to thread the ball too. The saving grace has been a strong backline, Milan have been unable to win as many games as they would have hoped, but in turn they have picked up points thanks to a defence that has only conceaded five goals in all competitions (a total of 13 games). Currently sitting eleven points behind both Inter and Palermo, Milan can ill afford a defeat, even a draw won't be of much use. Even this early the derby represents a must-win situation for Milan against their rivals.

Sitting on top of the league, one would be forgiven for thinking that all things are and have been well at Inter Milan, they have not. Inter were able to take advantage of Juventus's relegation following the corruption scandal, and signed Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In addition, Hernan Crespo re-joined Inter for a second stint and off an impressive World Cup, left-back Fabio Grosso also joined the ranks of the Nerrazurri. The pressure was on Inter more than ever before, they had always been expected to win and even with star names they had not done so. Now they had an eight point lead over Milan from day one, and no Juventus to worry about either. There would be no excuses this time should Inter fail to win the title, and despite still being the only unbeaten team in Serie A after eight games, they have been bending but not breaking...but only just. On opening day away at Fiorentina, and impressive Inter led 3-0. By the full time whistle they had been clinging onto a 3-2 lead for the past ten minutes in which they could easily have conceaded an equaliser.

Over the next few days a Champions League defeat in Portugal to Sporting Lisbon followed, as well as an unwelcome home draw with Sampdoria in the league. The criticism was relentless and Inter faced a tough challenge away at Roma. A spiritied display and a fantastic Hernan Crespo goal gave the Inter players the chance to claim their critics had been answered. An eventful 4-3 home win over Chievo kept the momentum rolling before another disaster in the Champions League. This time a 2-0 home defeat to Bayern Munich, accompanied by two red cards for Ibrahimovic and Grosso (adding to two earlier red cards Vieira had received in both Champions League and Serie A).

Inter were in need of another response and have reacted to that defeat with two wins and two draws in the league, as well as a much needed Champions League win over Spartak Moscow. Top of the league and back in contention in their Champions League group, the spotlight is on Inter more than ever in the coming days. As if a Milan derby was not enough on Saturday, Inter visit Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday where defeat is unthinkable. Two wins in these games and Inter will have effectively knocked Milan out of any possible title challenge and recovered a vast amount of damage made in their first two Champions League games. Two defeats, and fireworks will be going off in the media circus headed straight for Mancini and his players.