The Daily Bee (January 27th, 2021): Madness in Milan

Good morning, Fear the Wall!

The Bundesliga is out of action until the weekend, but that hasn’t caused a lack of drama in the footballing world. Yesterday, we witnessed something of a revival of a classic Italian rivalry between AC Milan and Internazionale in the Coppa Italia, led by each side’s star strikers: Zlatan Ibrahimovich and Romelu Lukaku.

Tempers flared right at the end of the first half. It’s unclear what exactly started the altercation, but nonetheless Zlatan and Lukaku ended up locking heads like a pair of bighorns.

Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images

While Zlatan started the night on the front foot by putting AC Milan in front, Lukaku eventually had the last laugh. Zlatan, who had been shown a yellow card for the altercation with Lukaku, was given a second yellow card following a foul on Aleksandar Kolarov. Lukaku then equalized with one of the most furious penalties I’ve ever seen. Finally, after almost seven minutes of stoppage time, Inter grabbed a winner courtesy of Christian Eriksen. The Danish midfielder has been heavily linked with a move away from Inter, and has struggled just to receive any match time under Antonio Conte. He struck a beautiful direct free kick that floated over the wall and into the net.

The rivalry between AC Milan and Inter has died down, at least internationally, in recent years, mostly because of the decline in competitiveness between the two clubs. As they experience something of a renaissance, we may see more of this type of drama.

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If you had to root for either Inter or AC Milan, who would you choose?