AC Milan fielded a 4321 formation today, with goalkeeper Dida, defenders Kaladze, Maldini, Nesta and Cafu, and a midfield three of Andrea Pirlo, Seedorf and Gattuso to protect him. Twin strikers Kaka and Rui. Costa, in which Rui Costa is responsible for the front court tandem, Kaka is more responsible for high-speed insertion in the back row, more like a shadow striker. Single striker Crespo.

They can be said to have four No.10 players on the field, Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaka and Rui. Costa has fine footwork, excellent passing and playmaking.

And Inter Milan's formation is 442, goalkeeper Toldo, defenders Favali, Mihajlovic, Córdoba, Zanetti, although Mihajlovic and Favali have proved difficult to do many times, but they are Mancini's descendants, so Mancini continues to trust them.

In midfield is a four-man duo of C. Zanetti, Cambiasso, Stankovic, Veron. From this configuration, it can be seen that Mancini is very defensive-oriented in this game. The quartet was basically a shallow disc position, with C. Zanetti and Cambiaso trailing behind, Stankovic to the left and Veron to the right.

In fact, before the game, Mancini was a little lacking in confidence to win, and kept emphasizing that he should first stabilize his defense and not rush to attack. For him, who has been playing offensive football this season, it can be described as a rare forbearance. After all, the opponent is AC Milan, and the attack power is better than the current Juventus.

The double striker is the partnership of Ronaldo and Ricardo. Adriano was in the squad, but when the team doctor checked him before the game, he was not considered to be at his best and could only play 60 minutes, so Mancini put him on the bench.

Vieri and Cruz did not even make the squad, and the three strikers who made the squad were Adriano, Recoba and Martins.

In the dressing room, Vieri has complained more than once about his lack of playing time, and he doesn't know when this conflict will erupt.

As the players waited for kick-off in the centre circle, both coaches Roberto Mancini and Carlo Ancelotti looked confident. I don't know if they are really confident to defeat their old enemies, or if they pretend to be calm and confident to reassure the players.

Referee DeSantis blew the whistle and the game began.

AC Milan kicked off first, and after hitting the backfield, they launched an attack with a long pass directly from the backfield, and the ball was cleared by Inter Milan defender Córdoba's header, and the football flew to the midfield. Gattuso fouled Veron when he was pressing in midfield.

At this time, the game started less than 30 seconds, and this small detail has already been revealed, it will be a fierce competition.

According to Mancini's pre-match instructions, Inter Milan played at a very fast pace in the opening minutes and launched a high-intensity pressing up front.

AC Milan did the same, not giving an inch, both sides passed quickly, fought fiercely, and kept switching the ball, but neither got any good chances.

So after 7 or 8 minutes of play, both sides seemed to have a tacit understanding, both slowed down the tempo, and both began to focus on defense.

Ricardo was a little regretful. He wanted to use the opening minutes, when AC Milan were not on a firm footing, to find an opportunity to help his team take the lead so that the rest of the game would be played.

But AC Milan are also very old and spicy and have not given the Nerazzurri such a chance at all. Inter's best chance of attacking was when Stankovic launched a long pass over the top after a steal in midfield to find Ricardo, the ball was a little wider, Dida hit the edge of the box in time to pick the ball off, and Ricardo was unable to close and collide with Dida.

Stankovic's footwork is still a little worse, and if this ball is passed by Veron, it is likely to be just right.

But Veron basically doesn't pass the ball to Brazilian players other than Ronaldo, so it's a paradox.

And he didn't give Ronaldo a lot of passes.

Therefore, as long as Veron plays at the same time as Ricardo and Adriano, most of his passes are horizontal or backward.

Even if Ricardo and Adriano run out of space, Veron is likely to move the ball to the wings and have the full-backs cut in and cross instead of going straight to Ricardo or Adriano himself.

Over time, as long as they saw Veron get the ball, both Ricardo and Adriano habitually did not run, so as not to waste their physical strength.

Ronaldo is a little different, he is the boss of the team after all, and Veron will not dare to offend him blatantly. Although he often pretends not to see him, sometimes when Ronaldo runs into a good position and Veron doesn't pass the ball, Ronaldo will complain and Veron will pretend to apologize.

There were also times when Veron would make a show and pass him a few inconsequential balls.

In the 9th minute, Inter Milan attacked, and when Cambiasso tried to stuff the ball to Ronaldo, Maldini broke the ball. But Maldini's big foot was too high to go far, and Ricardo rushed to the landing spot, and as soon as he stretched out his foot to catch it, the ball stuck to the surface of his foot as if it had been coated with glue. Ricardo was about to stuff the ball back to Ronaldo when Pirlo brought him to the ground.

Referee DeSantis awarded a free-kick and Mihajlovic took it, squandering a free-kick in a great position.

In the 11th minute, Stankovic attacked again with a long pass, and Ricardo grabbed the ball with his head before Nesta and gave it to Ronaldo.

Ronaldo and Maldini entangled and ran in front of the ball, and without waiting for the ball to land, they directly volleyed, and Maldini stretched out his foot in time to block the ball out of the bottom line.

In this game, Maldini concentrated on defending Ronaldo, almost not leaving an inch.

Although he is aged, his speed and explosiveness have decreased, and his counter-facing ability is much less than before, his experience allows him to intercept and block in the most effortless way, and Ronaldo has not been able to create a threat under his defence for the time being.

Ronaldo gave Ricardo a thumbs up and signaled that he was passing well. Ricardo shook his head, not satisfied with himself.

In fact, he just saw that Ronaldo had not gotten rid of Maldini, so he should not rush to ferry the header, but should hold the ball himself first and wait for Ronaldo to run out of the air before passing. However, he was a little less confident about getting the ball under Nesta's defence, so he chose to play the ball directly, which wasted a chance.

Nesta is now a proper world-class defender, strong, agile, quick to turn, decisive in defence and not lacking in experience, and is in the prime of a defender, and it does take courage to get the ball in front of him.

Ricardo naturally does not lack this courage, but in the situation just now, it is not easy to stop Stankovic's pass, and once it is not parked, it is likely that Nesta will see the opportunity to break the ball, so his choice cannot be said to be wrong.