Christian Pulisic‘s goal was the difference as AC Milan beat rivals Inter Milan 1-0.
Despite a controlled performance from Inter, Pulisic suddenly sent Milan ahead after the break. Cristian Chivu’s side were frustrated further when Hakan Çalhanoglu‘s penalty was superbly saved by Mike Maignan.
A derby win takes Milan into second in Serie A, while Inter drop to fourth.
Inter enjoyed a strong start to the game with Marcus Thuram testing Maignan in the early stages. They nearly had the opener when Çalhanoglu fired a corner towards Francesco Acerbi, but his header smashed off a post.
Maignan was called into action to deny Lautaro Martínez‘s volleyed effort with the goalkeeper making a brilliant dive to push the ball onto a post.
Although Inter had been on top, Milan broke the deadlock in the 54th minute at the San Siro when Alexis Saelemaekers hit a low effort from outside of the box that was saved by Yann Sommer, who pushed the ball into the path of Pulisic for the striker to easily tap home.
Inter continued to be frustrated as Çalhanoglu’s powerful effort from distance was blocked and Alessandro Bastoni scuffed his strike over the crossbar moments later.
Sommer held Youssouf Fofana‘s low strike following a neat move from Milan. Inter had the opportunity to level it in the 73rd minute when they were awarded a penalty after Strahinja Pavlovic stepped on Thuram’s foot in the box.
Çalhanoglu’s spot-kick was brilliantly stopped by Maignan, who made a fantastic dive to save before clawing the rebound away.
Maignan made a comfortable save in the final minutes from Andy Diouf and Milan withstood some late pressure to seal three points.
The derby result left Roma as sole leader after Gian Piero Gasperini’s side won 3-1 at Cremonese earlier in the day.
Roma has 27 points, two more than Milan and Napoli and three more than Inter and Bologna.
Pulisic had returned from injury in Milan’s last match, coming on in the 70th minute and almost scoring a late winner in the 2-2 draw at Parma.
Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this recap.
