Seven of the Best Forgotten Derby della Madonnina Goals

The first Derby della Madonnina of the season is fast approaching, and over the years the fixture has been a host of memorable goals. From Mark Hateley’s thumping header in 1984 to Andriy Shevchenko’s pearler of a strike with his left foot in the 2005 Champions League quarter-final that ignited a hail of flares from the Inter ultras.

Yet many have gone under the radar and don’t get the recognition they deserve. Destination Calcio wants to change that. So here are six forgotten classics from the Milan derby.

Gianluigi Lentini vs Inter, 1992

The world appeared to be at Gianluigi Lentini’s feet in the autumn of 1992. He’d just signed for Milan in a world record transfer fee from Torino just months earlier and, as just 23 years of age, and was making a breakthrough playing for Italy under Arrigo Sacchi.

Life got better for Lentini in the first Milan derby of the 1992-93 campaign. Milan was the football epicentre of the football world at the beginning of the 1990s, with both sides containing a host of world-class talents. 

Milan were in the middle of their invincible streak that saw them go 58 games unbeaten, and welcomed an Inter side that had already lost twice in the opening months of the season under Osvaldo Bagnoli. 

The Nerazzurri had already hit the crossbar, via a Davide Fontolan header, before Lentini launched his rocket in the 40th minute.

The Italian winger combined with Marco Van Basten — tragically in his final season as a player — down the left-hand side of the Inter half, with Lentini giving the ball to the Dutchman before running to meet his pass and speeding into the Inter penalty box.

Now just inside the area, Lentini took two touches, and his second saw the ball head straight to the top corner of Walter Zenga’s goal. It was a flowing move that moved at the speed of light, this was Lentini at his best; when he played off his instinct and when his pace was frightening.

History has tended to make people scratch their heads at Lentini and ask why Milan broke the transfer record to sign him. Before his car crash in the summer of 1993 he had the potential to be one of the best players in the world. This is a perfect example of what he could do and arguably could’ve done for far longer, had fate not intervened. 

Maurizio Ganz vs Milan, 1997

Ganz had the distinction of playing for both sides during the 1990s and 2000s, but only scored once in either side in a derby, and what a goal it was. 

His goal came in a 3-1 win for Roy Hodgson’s Inter in April 1997. Ganz was in the season of his career, in which he bagged 20 goals in all competitions for the Nerazzurri. Milan, by contrast, were having a disastrous campaign and would be the worst defending champions of the three-points-per-win era for decades, until Napoli broke it in 2023-24.

Inter were already 2-0 up by the time Javier Zanetti and Ciriaco Sforza went on a sweeping run down the left-hand side 12 minutes into the second half. Zanetti continued his run while Sforza played the ball infield to the elegant Youri Djorkaeff, The Frenchman produced a marvellous outside-of-the-foot pass around the corner to Zanetti, who galloped deep into the Milan half before swinging in a curling cross with his weaker left foot. Ganz rose to meet the Argentine’s pass with a header that gave Sebastiano Rossi little chance from no more than five yards out.

It was a devastating move from Inter, and secured all three points. It was particularly devastating for Milan, as the week before they got demolished 6-1 by Juventus in their own stadium. Nine goals had been shipped inside a week to their two biggest rivals. Arrigo Sacchi was back in charge at the club, and he was gone by season’s end. 

Luigi Di Biagio vs Milan, 2001

Luigi Di Biagio isn’t a player one would expect to find on a list of great goals, yet the former Inter and Roma midfielder was capable of the odd spectacular effort during his career. Di Biagio scored 13 goals for the Nerazzurri during his career, and this was the pick of the bunch.

In his second season at Inter following a big-money move from Roma, Di Biagio had been one of Massimo Moratti’s better signings towards the end of the 1990s. Yet by the time the two sides met in the first derby of the season, Inter’s campaign was as good as done. Marcello Lippi had been sacked weeks into the new season after getting knocked out of the Champions League to Swedish side Helsingborg, and by January 2001 Marco Tardelli had steadied the ship somewhat. 

Hakan Sukur (more on him later) had given Inter the lead, before Zvonimir Boban equalised. 20 minutes before the end of the game, Inter won a free-kick some 25 yards from goal after Seedorf was hauled down with a robust challenge from Kakha Kaladze.

Surprisingly, Di Biagio took charge of the situation, and promptly let fly with a running strike that arrowed into the top corner of Christian Abbiati’s goal. The Italian goalkeeper barely had time to set himself.

Olivier Bierhoff would level the game up and it would end in a 2-2 draw. 

Hakan Sukur vs Milan, 2001

Sukur’s experience with Italian football wasn’t good, he failed in two separate spells with Torino and Inter and found goals hard to come by both times. Yet this was undoubtedly the pick of the six goals he managed in Serie A.

Overshadowed by Di Biagio’s thunderbolt of a strike later in the same game, in the 10th minute Sukur sprung Milan’s offside trap and ran on to Clarence Seedorf’s lofted pass over the top of the defence. The Turkish forward met the ball first-time with a volley that flashed into the top corner of Christian Abbiati’s goal.

This goal was as good as it would get for Sukur at Inter, and within a year of scoring a wonder strike in the Milan derby he was on loan to Parma, where he similarly didn’t produce, before heading to the Premier League to play for Blackburn Rovers and finally a move back to Galatasaray in the summer of 2003. 

Clarence Seedorf vs Inter, 2004

A man famous for long-range goals produced a rip-roarer of a strike to ensure Milan did the derby double in 2003-04. The Rossoneri were the best team in Europe and should’ve retained the Champions League title that season (apologies to all Porto fans), yet their meltdown in La Coruna remains as unfathomable as the capitulation in Istanbul a year later.

This game was delicately poised at 2-2, with goals coming from Dejan Stankovic and Cristiano Zanetti for Inter and Jon-Dahl Tomasson and Kaka for the Rossoneri. 

There were five minutes left on the clock when Seedorf, a former Inter Milan player himself, received possession of the ball on the left-hand side. With Inter having a mass of bodies back in their own half, the Dutch midfielder searched for a teammate, but space was restricted.

Seedorf brought the ball infield and, with no one moving for him, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled his right-foot back and unleashed a venomous shot that cannoned, in the greatest sense of the word, into the corner of Francesco Toldo’s goal from a full 30 yards out.

It gave Milan the victory, and set them on their way to winning the Scudetto at a canter. This was arguably Carlo Ancelotti’s greatest Milan side, and the only shame is they didn’t win more. 

Antonio Candreva vs Milan, 2016

This strike from Antonio Candreva comes firmly in the middle of both sides ‘banter’ era, when both Italian institutions were in transition and hanging on to former glories. Inter were soon to be sold to Suning, while Silvio Berlusconi would reluctantly hand Milan over a year later to YongHong Li.

On the pitch, there wasn’t much to write home about during these derbies, except for this piledriver of a shot from Candreva. Suso had given Milan the lead just before half-time, but after the break Candreva took matters into his own hands and decided to level things up. 

Latching on to a throw-in from Ivan Perisic from the left-hand side, the former Lazio midfielder, who was a good 25 yards from goal, let the ball run across his body, took one touch to steady himself before unleashing a zipping, swerving, thunderbolt of a shot that gave Milan stopper — a young Gianluigi Donnarumma — no chance. 

The game would end in a 2-2 draw, with Suso getting a second for Milan and Perisic scoring at the death for Inter. Milan and Inter finished sixth and seventh in Serie A that season: a period in both clubs’ histories that they’d rather forget.

Rafael Leao vs Inter, 2022

Now at the age of 25, the inconsistencies in Leao’s game still remain. One minute he’s a world-beater who can turn games on their head with a moment of brilliance; the other he’s languid and on the fringes, there but not really there.

In the September 2022 derby the Portuguese was very much there. Leao had already scored, equalising after Marcelo Brozovic had given Inter a very early lead. Yet it’s his second that makes this list.

A long ball from Theo Hernandez deep into Inter territory is cushioned brilliantly by Olivier Giroud down the left-hand side. The Frenchman’s first-time touch finds Leao on the periphery of the Inter box, but faced with Alessandro Bastoni and Stefan De Vrij, there doesn’t seem anywhere for him to go. Or so they thought.

Leao shifts the ball on to his left foot, puts the car into turbo charge and flies past both players in a matter of milliseconds. Now bearing down on Samir Handanovic’s goal but with the angle becoming more acute, he contorts his body, putting all the weight on his left side before arching his foot right to send the ball across Handanovic’s net and into the bottom corner.

It was Leao at his beguiling best, and remains one of the best derby performances in recent memory. 

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