Leo and his Derby della Madonnina woes

In 2009/10 season, the first Milan derby of the season was a Week 2 fixture. The Rossoneris were hosts to the Nerazzuris at their Giuseppe Meazza stadium. Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan welcomed Leonardo to managerial business with a four nil victory. An ego bruising loss for the Brazilian who had a playing career with the Red and Blacks and knows what the loss means to the locals. Leo’s Rossoneri side took a while to recover after he fashioned out a winning formula. The two sides met for the second derby in Week 21. Leonardo’s Milan side were the form team in the Serie A and book makers tipped the Rossoneris to avenge their early season loss but The Special One gave Leonardo another coaching lesson. Inter Milan defeated their cousins two nil in a bad tempered match with Inter finishing the game with nine men. Jose Mourinho added salt to Leonardo’s injury his post match comment by saying, “The only way AC Milan would have won this game was if we (Inter Milan) were down to seven men“.

A jinxed man?

Leonardo shocked the Diavolos when he accepted the Inter Milan job last December after Rafa Benitez left. Leonardo woke the sleeping champions from their slumber  mid way through the season as Inter Milan starting producing the expected result.

AC Milan played host to Inter last weekend in another Derby della Madonnina that had so much influence on the Scudetto title with two points seperating league leaders  AC Milan and defending champions Inter Milan. Both sides went for the juggernaut with an attacking formation. Allegri stuck to his 4-3-1-2 formation despite the continued absence of  Zlatan Ibrahimovic while Leonardo surprisingly switched to 4-2-1-3, a  formation he used while he was with AC Milan.

The host got to a perfect start as Gattuso combined well with Pato to set up Robinho but his effort was saved by Julio Cesar into the path of Pato who slotted the ball into an empty net. Kevin Prince Boateng and ageless Seedorf bossed the midfield with Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso looking clueless and out of sorts. The Nerazzuris should have level at the end of the first stanza but Eto’o missed a good chance.

Inter were up for a herculean task when Chivu got his marching orders for a professional foul on Pato nine minutes into the second half. The Duck doubled his side lead in the 62minutes when he prodded home a far post cross from Abate. Substitute Cassano put the game beyond reach with his 90th minute spot kick. Leo’s Inter have been brought down to earth and their title dreams may well be over. The interesting thing here is that Leonardo has managed both Milan sides in the Derby Della Madonina with no victory and his team yet to score a goal while conceding nine goals in total.

Is there a jinx?