AC Milan won the regional derby against AC Monza 4-1. It was the very first encounter between the two teams in Serie A. City colleague Internazionale avoided losing a point in their away game against Fiorentina in the final seconds: 3:4.

Monza is the club of owner Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of AC Milan. He brought Adriano Galliani, who was director of the Milan soccer superpower for 31 years, to the club from the town five kilometers north of Milan.

Since 2018, Berlusconi and Galliani have been making good progress with Monza and last summer the club rose to Serie A for the first time. The ambitions don’t stop there, as fourteen-time Italy international Matteo Pessina joined from Atalanta Bergamo. He was there and invested heavily in the squad.

With Pessina on the field as captain, Monza played well against Milan, but the defending champions proved much more effective. Milan led 2-0 at half-time thanks to two goals from Spaniard Brahim Diaz.

Monza were hardly inferior to the top club in terms of possession and number of shots on goal, but after 65 minutes Milan made it 3-0 over Belgium’s Divock Origi. Filippo Ranocchia’s goal was well deserved given the picture, but substitute Milan Rafael Leao had the last word to make it 4-1.

Milan are level on points with leaders Napoli thanks to the win. The side that were twice too strong for Ajax in the Champions League travel to AS Roma on Sunday. Monza is a respectable fourteenth.

Inter are giving away two tours

Inter climbed up to seventh place after winning the spectacle at Fiorentina and passed Juventus in the ranking. With Stefan de Vrij in the base and Denzel Dumfries as a substitute, the Nerazzurri got off to a good start. Goals from Nicolò Barella and Lautaro Martínez made it 2-0 after 15 minutes.

But after an hour of play it didn’t matter again in Florence. Arthur Cabral converted a penalty and Jonathan ICO put the ball nicely in the cross behind goalkeeper André Onana. The last word seemed to be Martínez, who scored his second goal of the evening from a penalty. But in the 90th minute Luka Jovic scored the 3:3 in a corner kick with half an overhead kick.

With that, Inter seemed to have another disappointing result, but in the final seconds it was still oddly 3-4. A Fiorentina defender held off an Inter counterattack but fired past Henrikh Mkhitaryan, sending the ball into the goal.