Forward turned the derby on its head with a quickfire double that breathed life into the title race – and the dreaded No 9 shirt Nicky Bandini Mon 7 Feb 2022 13.01 GMT 63 Even Olivier Giroud was starting to wonder if he might have jinxed himself. The Frenchman had no hesitation in accepting Milan’s No 9 shirt after he joined last summer, shrugging off the fact that no player in a decade had hit double figures while wearing it in Serie A. Ten players had tried and failed – among them such talented goalscorers as Gonzalo Higuaín, Fernando Torres and André Silva – but Giroud insisted: “I’m not superstitious.” By the turn of the year, he was sounding a little less confident. “I don’t believe in the curse of the No 9 shirt,” he told Milan’s in-house TV station in January. “But I have thought about it a few times after all these physical issues I’ve been having.” Giroud had begun confidently, scoring twice in his home debut: a 4-1 win over Cagliari. Since then, though, his season had been a constant stop-start. He missed time due to Covid, then lower back pain, then a hamstring injury. Prior to Saturday’s derby against Inter, he had started seven league games in six months. Dusan Vlahovic celebrates at the end of a scoring debut for Juventus. European roundup: Napoli and Juventus win as Serie A race tightens Read more He had scored five times, yet Giroud’s most memorable involvement might have come during a 1-0 loss at home to Napoli in December, when he was ruled offside in the buildup to what would have been an equalising goal from Franck Kessié. That decision was contested, and the chance would never even have materialised without the striker’s smart knock-down, but since when have hexes been fair? Milan’s manager, Stefano Pioli, continued to show confidence in Giroud, naming him in the starting XI to face Inter and describing him as a player of “international character”. Then again, what choice did he have? Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ante Rebic were both unavailable. Giroud was the only fit striker in the first-team squad. Inter planned to make him irrelevant. The Nerazzurri arrived for this fixture as Serie A leaders, four points clear of their neighbours at the top and holding a game in hand. This was their chance to deliver a knockout blow in the title race, and for 75 minutes on Saturday it appeared they would do exactly that. From the opening whistle they dominated Milan, dictating where the game would be played even while holding a smaller share of possession. Pioli had set out to claim the middle of the pitch, deploying Kessié as a muscular No 10 to shut down Marcelo Brozovic’s lines of distribution. Inter simply shuttled their attacks down the flanks instead, Ivan Perisic and Denzel Dumfries launching continuous assaults. Advertisement It was the Croatian who broke the deadlock in the 38th minute, volleying home from a corner, but Inter ought to have scored sooner. Only a string of reflex stops from the Milan goalkeeper, Mike Maignan, prevented the champions from putting the game to bed within the opening half hour. He was called on less frequently after the interval, yet there was still no hint of an imminent Milan fightback. Giroud was doing the best he could as a target-man, playing with his back to goal and winning the high balls, but he was starved of support, Perisic and Dumfries pinning Milan’s full-backs, Davide Calabria and Theo Hernández, in their own half. Then, with 20 minutes to go, Inter began to retreat into a more defensive stance. Simone Inzaghi withdrew Perisic and Lautaro Martínez together in the 70th minute, and Hakan Calhanoglu in the 73rd. On came Alexis Sánchez, Federico Dimarco and Arturo Vidal. Each of these decisions could be justified. Perisic had asked to come off after feeling a calf muscle tighten. Calhanoglu had been brilliant against his former club, and set up Inter’s goal, but was on a yellow card at a point when the game was becoming more fractious. Lautaro was disappointingly anonymous. Inter’s Ivan Perisic (right) scores the first goal of the Milan derby. Inter’s Ivan Perisic (right) scores the first goal of the Milan derby. Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP Collectively, though, those changes felt like a retreat. Giroud accepted the invitation to lead an immediate counter-charge. Sánchez was still getting his bearings when his former Arsenal teammate thundered in to steal the ball off him in the middle of the park. The pair collided violently, spilling to the floor, but Giroud was immediately back on his feet and chasing forward as Sandro Tonali seized possession and advanced to the edge of the Inter box before squaring a pass to Brahim Díaz. Advertisement The Spaniard’s shot was blocked by Alessandro Bastoni but spun away to the left-hand corner of the six-yard box where Giroud, still running, arrived to slide it home. Against the run of play, Milan had equalised. Three minutes later, Giroud put them in front. If his first goal was a reward for single-minded commitment, then this was a reminder of the striker’s underappreciated technical craft. Closely-tracked by Stefan De Vrij as he ran on to a Calabria through-ball down the right channel, Giroud lost his man with a Cruyff turn before sweeping a shot across Samir Handanovic and into the bottom of the net. The keeper could have done better, but that should not take away from the quality of the goal. You could hardly call this a fluke for Giroud, who scored from an almost identical turn against Liverpool at Anfield six years before. Outplayed for so long, Milan nevertheless had little trouble defending the advantage once they had earned it. The 21-year-old Tonali set the tone, throwing himself into every challenge and fronting up to Inter players – at times more than he probably should – who tried to talk back to his teammates during breaks in play. Quick Guide Serie A results Show This is the Milan that Pioli wants: a group who cannot yet match Inter for squad depth and experience but who can bridge that gap with furious commitment. A young team – the average age of their starting XIs this season is 25.6 years old – learning what it takes to win a big game. Advertisement Sometimes it takes an older head to help you take the first steps. Giroud still needs another three goals to become the first Milan No 9 since Inzaghi to hit double figures in Serie A. But he hardly looked cursed by the shirt that he wore on Saturday evening. Pos Team P GD Pts 1 Inter Milan 23 35 53 2 Napoli 24 29 52 3 AC Milan 24 23 52 4 Juventus 24 15 45 5 Atalanta 23 17 43 6 Lazio 24 10 39 7 Roma 24 10 39 8 Fiorentina 23 8 36 9 Verona 24 3 33 10 Torino 23 7 32 11 Empoli 24 -10 30 12 Sassuolo 24 -3 29 13 Bologna 23 -8 28 14 Udinese 23 -3 27 15 Spezia 23 -18 25 16 Sampdoria 24 -8 23 17 Cagliari 24 -21 20 18 Venezia 23 -22 18 19 Genoa 24 -25 14 20 Salernitana 22 -39 10