Serie A Matchday 4: AC Milan – Inter Milan, San Siro Stadium, Milan 

Overview 

One of Europe’s biggest games of the season is almost upon us: the Milan Derby, which will kick off Saturday at 18:00 CET. Both sides – AC Milan and Inter Milan – are coming into this massive clash on a perfect streak since the start of the season, with both teams having won their last three matches. The Milanese sides – along with maybe Napoli – will ultimately be the only challengers for the Scudetto title this season. Both have scored 8 goals so far this campaign, with Inter also conceding 0 in the same time span. The last encounters between the two Italian giants came in May 2023, when Inter Milan beat the Rossoneri in the Champions League Semifinals 3-0 on aggregate. 

Both sides have carried out massive squad turnovers during the summer transfer window: Milan sold Sandro Tonali early on to Newcastle for a fee of around 75 million EUR and reinvested those funds to greatly improve the squad in key areas by bringing in the likes of Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus Cheek and Samuel Chukwueze, among others. Inter, on the other hand, lost more starters, with the likes of Onana, Skriniar, Brozovic, Lukaku and Dzeko all moving on from the Nerazzurri. However, Inter also brough in big name players such as Marcus Thuram, Davide Frattesi and Benjamin Pavard. The improvement in squad quality for both sides certainly makes this clash – coming so early in the season as well – a very intriguing one.  

Prediction and Odds 

Considering both teams come into the match in top form, although Milan will miss the center back pairing of Tomori (suspension) and Kalulu (injury), this may well be an excitingly tight affair at the San Siro. Recent Derbys have all been won by Inter, with Milan failing to score a single goal in the last four occasions, as the encounters all came in a period of the season where Milan was in serious difficulty, especially domestically. Considering how good both have been, however, we’ll go out on a limb and suggest the “Both Teams to Score” option, with Lautaro Martinez to be among the goal scorers: the Argentina striker found the net three times in those four wins last season. If we had to pick a favorite in this tight encounter, it is Inter Milan, simply for the fact that they have overrun AC Milan in 4 out of 5 derby’s last season and are yet to concede so far this term. 

Expect this clash to be an exciting, end-to-end affair, especially considering the caliber of players that will star – players such as Leao, Pulisic, Giroud, Lautaro and Thuram can create a goal-scoring chance out of nothing. The only question that could loom over this match is to what extent the midweek Champions league matches are on the players’ and managers’ minds? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. 

Inter Milan to Win – 2.22 

Draw – 3.50 

AC Milan to Win – 3.33