Ten-man Inter survived a second-half assault by city rivals Milan to win 1-0 at the San Siro last night and claim their 50th Milan derby success in Serie A.
Inter and Milan began the match, the 157th to be played between the sides in Serie A, with 49 wins apiece.
However it was Inter who emerged with the bragging rights after Argentinian Walter Samuel stunned a large majority of the 73,000 crowd with a fourth-minute opener.
Inter striker Antonio Cassano, who moved to Inter in the close season and was the subject of boos and jeers throughout the match, won a free-kick for an innocuous challenge on the left wing.
Esteban Cambiasso stepped up and sent in a deep cross that evaded the entire Milan defence, including ‘keeper Christian Abbiati, and was met at the far post by Samuel.
Five minutes later Inter spurned a golden chance to double their lead when Abbiati somehow gave the ball away to Diego Milito but the Argentine striker fluffed two chances to beat the Milan ‘keeper.
Inter’s early lead injected some urgency into Milan and they went on to dominate the opening half, albeit creating only one real scoring chance.
Stephan El Shaarawy’s effort was blocked under pressure after a good assist by Kevin Prince Boateng and then El Shaarawy did well to set up Urby Emanuelson only for the Dutchman to fail to make contact.
Inter coach Andrea Stramaccioni replaced Coutinho with Colombian midfielder Fredy Guarin for the start of the second half but was soon reshuffling when Yuto Nagatomo was sent off for handball, having been cautioned in the first half.
With Inter content to soak up the pressure and launch counter-attacks, Milan were soon dominating. However the goal they were searching for remained elusive.
Riccardo Montolivo finally managed to keep one of his drives down and when Handanovic could only parry, Bojan picked up the rebound and delivered a cross which Boateng, at the far post, bicycle kicked over the bar.
Earlier in the afternoon, Juventus had temporarily extended their lead at the top of standings with a 2-1 win away to Siena as Miroslav Klose kept Lazio in contention with a double strike in a 3-0 win over Pescara.
But, in another late kick-off, Napoli beat Udinese 2-1 to re-join Juve on 19 points.
Juventus got off to a great start when midfielder Andre Pirlo gave them a 14th minute lead from a free-kick.
Siena were given hope when Emanuele Calaio rose to meet Brazilian Angelo’s cross to beat Gianluigi Buffon with a bullet header in just before half-time.
Midfielder Claudio Marchisio, however, produced a superb volley from the edge of the area after the ball had been nodded out to give Juve a late winner and maintain their impressive unbeaten streak to 47 games.
Lazio have already suffered two defeats although the visit to struggling Serie A newcomers Pescara was never likely to end in anything but a win for a side that had scored nine goals in six games.
Lazio took the lead after just five minutes when Hernanes curled a free-kick past Mattia Perin in the Pescara net.
Klose made it two when he latched on to Andrea Candreva’s through ball in the 25th minute and claimed his fifth league goal of the season 11 minutes later when his header from a Hernanes corner beat the keeper.
Serie A
Catania 2
Gomez 2; Bergessio 80;
Parma 0
HT: 1-0. Att: 11,470.
Red card: Benalouane (P) 69.
Fiorentina 1
Jovetic 7;
Bologna 0
HT: 1-0. Att: 21,875.
Milan 0
Inter 1
Samuel 4;
HT: 0-1. Att: 73,000.
Red card: Nagatomo (INT) 48.
Napoli 2
Hamsik 30; Pandev 45;
Udinese 1
Pinzi 43;
HT: 2-1. Att: 40,000.
Roma 2
Lamela 30; Bradley 63;
Atalanta 0
HT: 1-0. Att: 40,155.
Pescara 0
Lazio 3
Hernanes 5; Klose 25, 36;
HT: 0-3. Att: 13,000.
Siena 1
Calaio 45;
Juventus 2
Pirlo 14; Marchisio 85;
HT: 1-1. Att: 15,373.
Torino 0
Cagliari 1
Nene 74 pen;
HT: 0-0. Att: 17,000.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Juventus | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 4 | 19 |
| Napoli | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 19 |
| Lazio | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 15 |
| Inter | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 15 |
| Roma | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 11 | 11 |
| Fiorentina | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 11 |
| Catania | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 11 |
| Sampdoria (-1) | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| Genoa | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Torino (-1) | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 8 |
| Milan | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Bologna | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 7 |
| Pescara | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 7 |
| Udinese | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 6 |
| Parma | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 6 |
| Chievo | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 14 | 6 |
| Palermo | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 5 |
| Atalanta (-2) | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 5 |
| Cagliari | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 5 |
| Siena (-6) | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 2 |
Next fixtures
Saturday, October 20: 18.00 Juve vs Napoli. 20.45 Lazio vs Milan.
Sunday, October 21: 12.30 Cagliari vs Bologna. 15.00 Atalanta vs Siena; Chievo vs Fiorentina; Inter vs Catania; Palermo vs Torino; Parma vs Samp-doria; Udinese vs Pescara. 20.45 Genoa vs Roma.
Top scorers
6 goals: Cavani (Napoli).
5 goals: Klose (Lazio), Gilardino (Bologna), Jovetic (Fiorentina).
4 goals: Cassano (Inter), El Shaarawy (Milan), Bianchi (Torino), Hernanes (Lazio).
Prima Divisione ‘A’
Carpi vs AlbinoLeffe 2-1; Como vs Lecce 2-2; Cuneo vs Cremonese 1-1; Lumezzane vs FeralpiSalo 2-0; San Marino vs SudTirol 2-1; Treviso vs Portogruaro 0-0; Tritium vs Pavi 0-0; Entella vs Reggiana 3-0.
Leading standings: Lecce 16; Entella 13; Carpi 10; Lumezzane, Porto-gruaro, Trapani 9; Como 8; SudTirol 7.
Prima Divisione ‘B’
Andria vs Sorrento 1-0; Barletta vs Latina 1-3; Frosinone vs Avellino 2-1; Nocerina vs Perugia 2-0; Pisa vs Carrarese 3-1; Prato vs Paganese 2-1; Viareggio vs Catanzaro 3-1.
Leading standings: Latina, Frosinone 12; Pisa, Viareggio, Avellino 11; Pe-rugia, Prato, Benevento 9.