November 4th, 2012 – After Leonardo’s departure following the 2010-11 Serie A campaign to take over as PSG’s sporting director, Massimo Moratti had appointed Gianpiero Gasperini as manager.
Gasperini struggled to convince the team of his ideas with a 3-man defence formation and was replaced after three games by Claudio Ranieri.
The “tinkerman” had decent success after his appointment as manager, and the team turned around their season temporarily, winning nine matches between October and January.
However the club made the critical mistake of selling Thiago Motta to PSG on free transfer. Which proved to be a critical error, as the team went winless in the entire month of February, losing all but two matches in the process.
The horrible stretch of form lasted through the month of March as well. The loss against Juventus in Turin cost Ranieri his job on March 25th and he was replaced by the primavera manager Andrea Stramaccioni who was fresh off a win in UEFA’s NextGen Series.
Under Stramaccioni, Inter went on a good run of form, losing only two out of the remaining eight matches in the season.
This strong finish to the season, resulted in Stramaccioni keeping the job for 2012-13 Serie A campaign. The team remained mostly the same with key additions of Rodrigo Palacio and Antonio Cassano and departure of Giampaolo Pazzini to rivals AC Milan in a trade for Cassano.
Under Stramaccioni, the squad got off to a fantastic start to the season, winning nine out of the first eleven matches.
As round eleven came around, the Nerazzurri travelled to Turin to take on Antonio Conte’s scudetto winning Juventus side who were on a 49 game unbeaten streak and also hadn’t lost a match yet at the new Juventus Stadium.
However they were going to be without Antonio Conte on their sidelines as he was serving a suspension due to red card.
The Nerazzurri had an impressive six game winning streak of their own leading up to the game, in a stretch where the team was averaging 2.5 goals per game! The derby d’italia was going to be a spectacle and it did not disappoint!
Starting for Juventus were Gigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Kwaduo Asamoah, Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Marchisio, Mirko Vucinic and Sebastian Giovinco.
For the visiting Inter side, the starting eleven were Samir Handanovic, Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Juan Jesus, Andrea Ranocchia, Yuto Nagatomo, Esteban Cambiasso, Walter Gargano, Rodrigo Palacio, Diego Milito and Antonio Cassano.
Juventus got off to a lucky and fast start as Arturo Vidal scored the first goal of the match. He tapped in an open net goal following a cross from Kwaduo Asamoah who was clearly offside on the replays but the referee didn’t call it as such and the goal was allowed to stand. Giving Juventus a huge advantage and an early lead in the derby.
Soon after conceding, Palacio headed home a cross from Cambiasso. However he was flagged offside and the goal was disallowed.
The entire first half was fiery and combative end to end action as both teams went all in, trying to score the next goal. Both sides created chances, catching the opposition off guard and hitting them on the counter.
As the second half got underway, the match continued similar to how it ended in the first half. Marchisio’s foul on Milito shifted the momentum of the game in favor of the visitors.
Milito was pulled back inside the box as he was taking a shot on goal. Referee Tagliavento saw it closely and immediately called for the penalty which was converted with confidence by El Principe tying the game at 1-1 at the fifty-nine minute mark.
Juventus went all out looking for the winning goal after conceding and in doing so, committed many players forward which allowed Inter to play strictly on counter-attack.
Freddy Guarin came off the bench for Antonio Cassano and was disruptive in winning the ball higher up the field and starting counter-attacks.
This proved to be a successful tactic, Inter’s second goal of the match was all created by Freddy Guarin, as he won the ball higher up the pitch and took a powerful, pile-driving shot from outside the box which Buffon could only push in Milito’s direction.
El Principe tucked away the shot in the bottom left corner to give Inter a crucial 2-1 lead at Juventus Stadium.
As the match edged closer to completion, Inter defended with their life on the line and kept the ball out of the net and added a third decisive goal through Palacio winning the Derby D’Italia with a comprehensive 3-1 scoreline.
Diego Milito was the man of the match with the brace on score sheet, however this was Inter’s best performance under Stramaccioni and a complete team win.
