Inter frustrate biggest rivals to force derby stalemate

Milan 0 Internazionale

Following last night's engaging goalless draw at San Siro, the good folk of Milan will have to wait another six days to find out which of their two clubs will travel to Old Trafford to contest the Champions' League final. Even more frustrating for the supporters of Milan and Internazionale is the fact that neither side can yet be crowned kings of the city.

Truth be told, if this closely contested first leg is anything to go by, it may take more than 90 minutes to settle the derby next Tuesday. Lucky us.

"It was a much more open game than I thought it would be," said the Milan coach, Carlo Ancelotti. "The tie is still wide open and both managers will feel their glass is half-full."

So much for catenaccio. All the pre-match talk had centred on the notion that this was going to be the ultimate clash in styles: the gracious and elegant Milan on one side; the tough and gritty Inter on the other. It took less than five minutes to realise that such labels were some way off the mark.

Indeed, San Siro may have been Milan's from an official point of view last night, but much of the match itself belonged to Inter. No matter that the Nerazzurri had fewer than 11,000 of their supporters to cheer them on, Hector Cuper's men played with great control and no shortage of invention.

"Considering what was at stake, I thought we were excellent," said their Argentinian coach. "On another night, we might even have nicked it."

Hernan Crespo was no more than a boot away from turning in Sergio Conceicão's cross-cum-shot after two minutes while Alvaro Recoba shot straight at Dida moments later. Milan's only half-chance came after 12 minutes, when Andrei Shevchenko attempted to lob Francesco Toldo from the left side of the Inter box, but it takes more than that to beat the experienced Italy keeper.

Inter's two hard-working banks of four continued to frustrate Milan thereafter, and it said everything about their first-half performance that San Siro was strangely quiet for long periods. The "home" faithful would have been even more subdued had Recoba placed his 18th-minute header either side of Dida rather than in the Brazilian's arms.

Milan took the game to their opponents in the second-half. Two long-distance efforts from Rui Costa set the tone and Shevchenko almost found the breakthrough when he met Kakha Kaladze's cross at the near-post, only for Toldo to save.

That the keeper was not called upon 15 minutes after the restart owed everything to Shevchenko's rare indecision. Having collected a terrific through-ball from Rui Costa, the Ukrainian inexplicably decided to try to find Filippo Inzaghi at the far post when he had acres of space inside the box to run into himself.

The longer Milan failed to find the net, the more likely Inter were to score a breakaway goal. They nearly did so on 72 minutes when Fabio Cannavaro headed Emre Belozoglu's corner just wide.

With just over 10 minutes to go, Ancelotti played his trump card, but not even a magician of Rivaldo's stature could unlock the door to Inter's defence.

Milan (4-3-1-2): Dida; Costacurta, Nesta, Maldini, Kaladze; Gattuso (Redondo, 78), Brocchi (Serginho, 73) Seedorf; Rui Costa; Shevchenko (Rivaldo, 81), Inzaghi. Substitutes not used: Abbiati (gk), Simic, Tomasson, Roque Junior.

Internazionale (4-4-2): Toldo; Cordoba, Materazzi, Cannavaro, Coco (Pasquale, 84); J Zanetti, Sergio Conceicão (Guglielminpietro, 66), Di Biagio, Emre; Crespo, Recoba (Kallon, 72). Substitutes not used: Fontana (gk), Gamarra, Obafemi, Vivas.

Referee: V Ivanov (Russia).