Serie A Blog: Diego Milito comes out on top in Milan’s ‘Battle of the Princes’

The race for the Scudetto was blown wide open as AC Milan fell to Inter, Juventus failed to beat Cagliari and Udinese were toppled at Genoa.

The AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri reacted strongly to the suggestion that his team had been cut down to size by Claudio Ranieri's Inter after Sunday night's 'Derby della Madoninna' defeat.

“Absolutely not,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “Today was a day in which the top three teams in the table earned only one point between them. The only thing that happened is that we lost the derby and Inter are back in the Scudetto race.

“But we took the game to them, especially in the first half. They waited in order to hit on the break and they did it, well, in their first chance,” continued the Rossoneri coach.

The result continues a worrying trend for Milan this year of losing to their most prominent rivals for the league title, with a 3-1 loss early in the season to Napoli, a 2-0 reversal against Juventus in October and now this 1-0 defeat by Inter which ended their 12-match unbeaten run.

Meanwhile, his opposite number Claudio Ranieri maintained the grounded approach which has served him well since his October appointment, stating: “We are making big advances, and to beat AC Milan was very important. Our games against the other big teams served as lessons for us.”

“We are gradually finding the right energy and things are starting to go well,” he added.

Inevitably, talk turned to Inter's return to the championship race but again Ranieri was true to form and played down such comment. “I prefer not to say that word. We'll carry on our course. Today we've beaten AC Milan and Juventus have slipped up,” he said.

“Before, it was important for us to make the Europa League places, but now we're aiming for a Champions League spot. We’ll take one step at a time. It is in Inter's blood to fight for the top positions.”

The key difference between the two sides could be seen in the efforts of their senior players. While Inter's Lucio, captain Javier Zanetti and re-born striker Diego Milito gave their all for the Nerazurri cause, their work rate was simply not matched by the Milan players.

Perhaps Zlatan Ibrahimovi? has become bored of winning league titles but one 50/50 challenge with Milito midway through the game encapsulated this encounter with the Argentine the only one interested in emerging with the ball.

Milito's industry was rewarded in the 54^th minute with the only goal of the game, a composed finish into the corner following a piece of careless defending from Ignacio Abate.

“I’m very happy because we played a great game against high quality opponents. We knew it would be a very difficult game and we’re very happy to have won the derby,” said Diego Milito to the Sky Sports cameras afterwards.

“It was an important performance, both for our position in the Serie A table, and for our morale. This derby will give us strength to face our upcoming games. To win the derby is always a beautiful thing and added to that I’ve had the good fortune to score the winning goal. That goal was for the people who have stayed close to me in every moment.”

Juventus miss a golden opportunity

Title rivals Juventus also dropped points this weekend and will be disappointed that they didn't capitalise on an early Mirko Vucinic goal at home against mid-table Cagliari.

The Bianconeri dominated the remainder of the first-half but an early second-half goal by Cagliari's Andrea Cossu seemed to unsettle La Vecchia Signora and despite the introduction of Alessandro Del Piero, Milos Krasic and new signing Marco Borriello, they could not find a winner.

Speaking to the media after the match, Juve coach Antonio Conte said: “I think the game immediately started well for us, as we were in the lead and playing good football with many chances to finish it off. After the break we conceded straight away and that goal made us freeze up. We improved later, but were unable to take our scoring opportunities.”

Conte defended his tactics of substituting his attack of Vucinic and ex-Cagliari striker Alessandro Matri in the latter part of the game, and insisted that he wanted to introduce fresh legs onto the pitch.

“I tried to introduce fresh legs in attack, but the final blow just didn't come. I am not satisfied with the result, as we must be intelligent enough to improve on negatives and continue this campaign that is above our expectations,” said the Juve manager

Down the road from Turin's Juventus Stadium, a 3-2 thriller was being played out at Genoa's Stadio Luigi Ferraris, where 3^rd place Udinese faced a Genoa side who had conceded nine goals in their last 2 league games.

New coach Pasquale Marino took the reins of the Rossoblu following a 6-1 defeat by Napoli in the last round of 2011 games and he could have been forgiven for fearing the worst when he saw his side fall behind to an early Damiano Ferronetti goal.

However, the home side replied early in the second half with goals from Andreas Granqvist and Bosko Jankovic and a third goal by Rodrigo Palacio with 20 minutes remaining looked to have sealed the win.

Udinese were awarded a dubious penalty with 15 minutes remaining which resulted in the dismissal of Genoa captain Marco Rossi and a spot kick converted by Antonio Di Natale, his 12^th of the season. Yet despite their one-man advantage, Udinese could not find an equaliser to tighten the title race further.

Weekend Results

Lazio 2-0 Atalanta, Cesena 3-1 Novara, Chievo Verona 1-0 Palermo, Fiorentina 0-1 Lecce, Genoa 3-2 Udinese, Juventus 1-1 Cagliari, Parma 3-1 Siena, AC Milan 0-1 Inter, Napoli 1-1 Bologna

Upcoming Fixtures

Saturday, January 21

AS Roma v Cesena

Cagliari v Fiorentina

Atalanta v Juventus  (7.45pm Live on Setanta Ireland)

Sunday, January 22

Bologna v Parma

Lecce v Chievo Verona

Novara v AC Milan

Palermo v Genoa

Siena v Napoli

Udinese v Catania

Inter v Lazio (7.45pm Live on Setanta Ireland)