Calhanoglu meets his penalty match as Maignan’s mind games win Milan derby | Nicky Bandini

It had taken 73 minutes, and a VAR review, but Inter finally had their breakthrough in the Milan derby, the referee, Simone Sozza, pointing to the spot after he saw replays of Strahinja Pavlovic treading on Marcus Thuram’s foot inside the box. Now all that remained was for Hakan Calhanoglu to convert and make the score 1-1.

A formality. Since arriving in Serie A, the Turkey captain had been practically automatic in these situations – scoring 27 out of 28 penalties taken for Inter, and three out of three for Milan before that. Entire newspaper columns and late-night TV broadcasts were given over to analysing his infallibility, before he finally smacked one against a post in a draw at home to Napoli last year.

Even then, no goalkeeper had ever stopped him. By now they knew his favourite place to aim, the bottom left from his perspective, and still that was not enough to keep his shots out. Calhanoglu struck the ball so cleanly into the corners that most simply could not get there from the middle of the goal. And if you cheated across, he would change direction.

On Sunday night, Mike Maignan took a different approach. Instead of positioning himself closer to where he expected Calhanoglu to shoot, he did the opposite, standing a good step over to the opposite side of the goal – his left, the Inter player’s right.

It felt like a dare. Maignan was telling Calhanoglu to take his favourite shot and even offering a head-start. ‘Better put it right in the corner, though, because we both know that’s where it’s going, and I’m going to come after it fast.’

Perhaps he was trying to put the memory of that miss against Napoli into the Inter player’s head. It had happened right here, at the same end of San Siro – underneath the Curva Nord. Improbably, it even took place in the equivalent minute of that game.

This time Calhanoglu kept his shot on target. Maignan, hurling himself down, got a strong hand to it and kept it out.

For the first time in eight years of domestic Italian football, Calhanoglu had met his match from the penalty spot. If any keeper was going to do it, it made sense that it should be Maignan on a night like this, when he had already made several brilliant saves. In the Dazn TV studio, Italy’s greatest-ever keeper, Gianluigi Buffon, purred. “I would have taken the same position Maignan did,” he said. “But I don’t know if I would have been able to make the save!”

Inter should never have been behind in the first place. They had made more than twice as many attempts on goal as Milan, and of a better quality, too. There was a diving header by Thuram, clawed away by Maignan at full stretch. A leaping one from a corner by Francesco Acerbi that crashed off the woodwork. A volley by Lautaro Martínez that the goalkeeper somehow pushed on to the frame.

They assailed from all angles in a first-half flurry: back post, front post, right in the middle of that accursed penalty area. Maignan had them all covered.

If there was an image to sum up the experience, it might have been Martínez, reacting to his shot being saved with a glance back Maignan and arms thrown out in a shrug of weary grievance. The look of a man who had just had his paperwork rejected again by some indefatigable bureaucrat, despite filling in every section as carefully as he could. Back of the line, sir. You’ve had your turn.

Milan, by contrast, were a model of efficiency. They had barely sniffed Inter’s goal before Youssouf Fofana won a pair of midfield challenges to launch them from midfield in the 54th minute, striding forward and squaring the ball to Alexis Saelemaekers, who slipped as he fired across goal from the right of the D. Yann Sommer pushed his shot away, but not far enough. Christian Pulisic swept the rebound into the net.

A smash and grab? Perhaps. But a gameplan devised and executed as well. This is how Massimiliano Allegri has set his teams up in big games for many years: compact, cautious, patient. Sometimes too much so – just ask the Juventus fans who delighted in the manager’s departure at the end of his most recent stint. The Bianconeri had become a crushingly tedious watch. Of course, he did sign off by winning them a trophy.

After scoring, Milan shut up shop, starving Inter of those shooting opportunities from the first half. Pavlovic’s foul offered them a way back in. Maignan’s heroics blocked it.

When the full-time whistle went, sealing Milan’s 1-0 win, it hardly felt like an upset. Sure, Inter had held more of the ball and created better chances, but they do that in almost every game. They also fail to win, repeatedly, against their rivals.

Inter finished 18 points ahead of Milan last season yet lost to them three times and drew their other two games between the league, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa. As much as Milan’s win this weekend did look like a classic Allegri performance, it was the continuation of a trend that has now survived a combined three managerial changes between the two clubs.

It was not always thus. For a decade from 2012 through to the end of 2021, Inter dominated the derby – defeated only four times in total, and one of those in extra time. It is a curious twist that this habit should be lost in a chapter when there is widespread agreement that they own the strongest squad in Serie A.

For Inter, though, the issue is not just games against Milan. Losses in the so-called scontri diretti – head-to-heads against clubs with equivalent stature and expectations – have become a troubling theme. Between last season and this, they have won just two out of 12 league games, losing six, against Napoli, Juventus, Roma and Milan.

Christian Chivu owns only four of those, since replacing Simone Inzaghi in the summer. Still, he sought no excuses or claims to bad luck at full time. Asked if he could name any positives from this defeat, he replied that the busy calendar gave them a chance to get it out of their systems against Atlético Madrid in three days’ time.

The worry for Inter will be what effect a further loss there might have on morale. The scramble for scapegoats has already begun, with Sommer drawing much criticism.

Inter will need to address the goalkeeper position at some stage. Sommer is 36, and while it remains unfair to blame him for all his team’s failings, his standards have slipped over the past two years.

Then again, the same might go for Milan. Maignan’s contract will expire at the end of this season. He, too, has been below his best at times in the last couple of seasons – injury and managerial upheaval have played their part – but this was another reminder that he can be one of the best in the world.

Good enough even to help Milan sustain a title challenge? Both they and Inter remain very much in the running. With almost a third of the season gone, there are just three points between Roma in first and Bologna in fifth. Victory took Milan up to second, Inter fell to fourth.

If the Nerazzurri slip up too often in the big games, the Rossoneri have dropped points against teams they might be expected to beat. In the last month they have drawn 2-2 with Pisa and Parma – the latter after they had been 2-0 up at half-time. They also lost to newly promoted Cremonese on the opening weekend, though nobody has beaten them since.

“It’s a process,” said Allegri on Sunday. “We will continue to grow.”