The five key battles that could win or lose the game for Milan against Inter

Inter and AC Milan renew hostilities at San Siro on Sunday night as they contest the first Derby della Madonnina of 2025-26.

The two sides played each other five times last season across three competitions, and Milan certainly came out on top. Not only did they go unbeaten against Inter, but they won three of them, including a league game, the Supercoppa Italiana final and the Coppa Italia semi-final tie.

Cristian Chivu’s side have been excellent to start the season though and are currently second in the league after Napoli’s win on Saturday night, but can reclaim top spot with a win. A victory would put them five points ahead of the Rossoneri, who in turn know they can leapfrog their cousins if they come out on top.

Inter vs. AC Milan: Five key battles

It seems as though Chivu and Massimiliano Allegri have got their starting XIs set ahead of tonight’s contest, and it will be a battle between 3-5-2 systems. However, as we analysed on Friday, the way of playing could not be more different for the Milanese sides.

In truth, it is hard to pick out just five battles for this game. Nonetheless, we start with an intriguing one between Manuel Akanji and Rafael Leao. The Akanji sub-plot is very interesting because he was heavily linked with Milan in the summer, but turned them down and chose Inter because he wanted Champions League football.

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After joining, he branded them as the ‘biggest club in Italy’ which certainly fanned the flames. Leao meanwhile will be Allegri’s biggest threat in transition and should drift out to that left side. He has seven goal contributions in 20 games against Inter so is experienced in this fixture, but this will be a tough test against a centre-back who is very athletic and in great form.

Moving towards the other flank, Federico Dimarco is also someone who knows the derby very well, having appeared against Milan more times (16) than any other club in his senior career. Not only that, but the marauding wing-back has two goals and two assists to his name versus the Rossoneri, an opponent he feels a bit more fired up for no doubt given he is a boyhood Inter fan.

On the flip side, Alexis Saelemaekers is someone with Derby della Madonnina experience too, but he hasn’t played in it for over two years. He did score in the Rome derby last season and he is having a great start to 2025-26 for club and country. Both he and Dimarco will have the same task: support the attack when possible, but above all stop the other from getting involved.

In the middle of the park, Milan will welcome Adrien Rabiot back to the starting line-up for the first time since before the October break. The numbers show just how crucial the Frenchman has been since his arrival late in the summer, and the interesting footnote is that he could have been an Inter player on two previous occasions.

His opponent on the left side of the midfield trio will be Nicolo Barella, who by contrast is a veteran in the derby. He remains the beating heart of a lot of what Inter’s strengths are going forward, with six goal contributions this season. It feels as though whoever dominates this particular contest could end up directing traffic in a very important area of the field.

While Marcus Thuram has become a thorn in Milan’s side since he joined Inter, Lautaro Martinez remains the one that evokes nightmares from the past. He has played 20 games against the Diavolo and has won 11 of them, scoring nine goals and adding four assists. By contrast, he has four goals in 21 appearances against Juventus, and five goals in 18 against Napoli, so he loves this game.

In truth, it will have to be a collective effort from the three centre-backs to stop the Argentina and Thuram. However, given his nature to play more on the right side, Strahinja Pavlovic is the one who will have to keep very close tabs on things, with Matteo Gabbia perhaps more likely to tackle the true No.9 Thuram. Keeping those two quiet feels like the only way to win.

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Finally, we come to the most fascinating contest of all in the midfield engine room: Hakan Calhanoglu versus Luka Modric. On one side is a man who has played in the derby for both sides in two very different roles; on the other side is someone who could not have more big game experience but is entering his first one in Milan.

Both perform very similar roles as the deep-lying playmakers, expected to dictate the tempo, orchestrate the build-up and break lines with their passing. Reports in the build-up have suggested Calhanoglu will be Modric’s disruptor – at least in Chivu’s plans – but seeing them face each other head-to-head seems unlikely given they each operate further back.

Nonetheless, the duel of the Registi is what could well solely decide the outcome of the contest, such is the importance of the Turk and the Croatian to their respective sides. Calhanoglu has three goals and four assists against Milan since crossing the divide, but Modric will hope that he celebrates derby debut delight.