Paulo Fonseca praises AC Milan's fearless display in derby victory against Inter

AC Milan manager Paulo Fonseca commended his team's courage as they secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over city rivals Inter Milan in a thrilling Italian Serie A match on Sept 22.

Milan secured a late victory when defender Matteo Gabbia eluded his marker and found the top corner with a perfectly timed header from a free kick.

The win marked their first victory in the Derby della Madonnina since 2022 after suffering six consecutive losses.

“It was an important match. First of all, because it’s a derby that Milan hadn’t won in a long time. It was important given the moment we were going through,” Fonseca told DAZN.

“I think the players showed a lot of courage and we deserved the win. I don’t remember seeing a team who caused this many problems for Inter in a long time.”

Christian Pulisic opened the scoring for Milan in the 10th minute with a solo effort.

Inter then levelled in the 27th minute when captain Lautaro Martinez set up Federico Dimarco, who found space on the edge of the box and unleashed a powerful strike into the back of the net.

In the 89th minute, Tijjani Reijnders took a free kick that found Gabbia, who clinched a crucial victory.

Milan had previously won just once in five games in all competitions to spark talk of a crisis, but the win moved them to eight points in Serie A from five games, level with Inter.

Fonseca brushed off the suggestion that the victory had eased the pressure on him after a poor start to the campaign.

“It makes little difference to me, because I don’t read or listen to these things,” he said.

“The important thing for me is to continue seeing the players believe in our ideas, the way they have done so far. We know that we must improve, but this was a victory for the players today.”

Inter coach Simone Inzaghi acknowledged that Milan were the better team at the San Siro and questioned the attitude displayed by his players at times during the match.

“Of course Milan are a very good team. They did better than us this evening and deserved the victory,” he said.

“We had the wrong approach and weren’t enough of a team, which is rare for us. We didn’t start either half with the right attitude.”

With two draws and one loss in Serie A so far, defending champions Inter have endured a mixed start to the campaign.

“It’s unexpected, we had worked well over the last couple of days in training, but the approach was wrong in both halves. Now we’ve already dropped a few too many points in Serie A and this is particularly sore,” Inzaghi added.