Wednesday Italian Super Cup tip preview: AC and Inter set to serve up Milan derby treat in Riyadh

Sergiu Baltuta
18 January 2023

The two Milan rivals have to travel to Saudi Arabia to contest Italy's Super Cup final on Wednesday, and football tipster Sergiu Baltuta has being weighing up their prospects.

It will be only the second time that the two Italian giants have clashed in the Super Cup after meeting in Beijing in 2011, when AC Milan came from behind to win 2-1.

Apart from that, and despite over a century of Milan derbies, these two rivals have only ever met in one other final, and that was Milan's 2-0 success to lift the 1977 Coppa Italia.

Even though they are still above Inter in the Serie A league table, Milan are going through a poor run of form, having gone three consecutive games without a win in all competitions, sandwiching a 0-1 defeat at home to Torino in the cup between two 2-2 league draws against Roma and Lecce .

On the other side, Inter are undefeated in 2023 with two 1-0 successes against Napoli and Verona in Serie A and a 2-1 extra-time win against Parma in the Italian Cup, plus a 2-2 draw against the newly-promoted Monza in a game where they conceded the equaliser in the final seconds.

In September Milan won a thrilling derby 3-2 after a superb performance from Rafa Leao, who scored two goals, his first goals against the Nerazzurri.

Olivier Giroud also scored in that game, the second consecutive derby in which he scored, after his double in February's 2-1 win kickstarted the fantastic run that brought them the first Scudetto after 11 years.

Manager Simone Inzaghi has won the Super Cup three times, twice with Lazio and once with Inter, which last year when they managed to win 2-1 after extra time against Juventus. Another win will equalise Marcello Lippi and Fabio Capello as the managers with the most Italian Super Cup successes.

Milan boss Stefano Pioli has his entire squad available with the exception of Mike Maignan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who remain sidelined with long-term injuries, while Sandro Tonali is expected to return to the starting eleven after being suspended for the game against Lecce.

On the the other side Marcelo Brozovic and Romelu Lukaku have medical issues which might mean that Inzaghi will start with them alongside him on the bench.

Milan have won the Italian Super Cup seven times, the most recent of which was in 2016, while last year's win was Inter's sixth success.

Seven of the last nine head-to-head games in all competitions between the Milan rivals produced over 2.5 goals, so there are plenty of reasons to expect the two teams to give the fans a game to remember in Riyadh.