AC Milan put Inter to the sword at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Saturday evening, winning 3-1 in a derby that was effectively settled before half-time. The decisive fact is straightforward: AC Milan midfielder Diego Moreira contributed to all three of the home side's goals โ two assists and the third himself โ and Inter, unbeaten in nine Serie A matches coming in, had no answer to him.
The match moved at a pace that suited Milan from the first whistle. In the 4th minute, AC Milan midfielder Christian Puliลกiฤ opened the scoring, converting a delivery from Moreira to put the home side ahead before Inter had found their footing. Six minutes later, the pattern repeated: Moreira again provided the assist, this time for AC Milan midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who doubled the lead at 10'. Two goals in ten minutes, both constructed through the same corridor, was a statement of intent that Chivu's Inter could not immediately process.
Inter did respond. Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni โ playing for the Nerazzurri โ pulled one back in the 22nd minute, cutting the deficit to 2-1 and giving the visitors a foothold. For twenty minutes, the match had a different texture. Then, in the 43rd minute, Moreira settled it. The Portuguese midfielder took the ball himself and scored AC Milan's third, restoring the two-goal cushion just before the interval. That goal โ the decisive one โ arrived at precisely the moment Inter might have carried momentum into the dressing room.
Moreira is the natural focus here. Two assists and a goal in a single derby performance is a contribution that shapes the entire narrative of the match. What makes it more than a statistical footnote is the context: Milan had lost at home to Bologna just three days earlier, a 4-2 defeat that raised questions about the team's defensive solidity and attacking consistency under Ruben Amorim. Against the league's form side, Moreira answered those questions emphatically. He was withdrawn in the 89th minute, by which point the result was long beyond doubt.
Inter's evening unravelled in stages. The two early goals came before Chivu's side had established any rhythm, and Bastoni's reply โ while it briefly reopened the contest โ could not compensate for the structural damage done in those opening ten minutes. The VAR cancellation of a Henrikh Mkhitaryan penalty in the 75th minute removed what would have been a route back into the match at 3-2; instead, the score stayed at 3-1 and the game moved into a phase of late substitutions with the outcome settled. Inter made two changes in the 82nd minute alone, a cluster of alterations that spoke to the urgency of a team chasing a result they could not find.
The table context sharpens the significance. Inter arrived at the Meazza with 25 points from nine matches, undefeated and sitting first. Milan, with 18 points and a fifth-place standing, were the underdogs by any reasonable measure. Inter had collected 13 points from their last five matches before this fixture; they now move to 12 from five, their first defeat of the campaign. Milan, for their part, had shown inconsistency in the same window โ three wins, one draw, one defeat across their last five โ and the loss to Bologna three days prior meant they came into this derby without the comfort of a clean recent run. The derby result does not erase that inconsistency, but it demonstrates that Amorim's side can produce their best football against the highest-calibre opposition.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the night Diego Moreira handed Inter their first defeat of the season and reminded the Nerazzurri that an unbeaten record is only as durable as the next opponent's best performance.