Milan's Champions League place is back in Fiorentina's hands after this disastrous defeat at the San Paolo.
The Rossoneri were back on track and leapfrogged Fiorentina into fourth place last week, but faced a tough test to keep hold of it, as the likes of Inter and Juventus had already fallen at the San Paolo. Cristian Brocchi filled in for the suspended Andrea Pirlo, while Yoann Gourcuff joined the injury list. Fabiano Santacroce and Manuele Blasi sat out bans for the home side, who wanted revenge for losing 5-2 at San Siro in January.
Napoli hadn't won this Serie A fixture since 1995, followed by two draws and as many defeats. There were early penalty appeals for a possible Clarence Seedorf h
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Kalac – 6.5: Slightly nervy at times but made one excellent stop from Crespo’s one-on-one and also produced a smart stop from Maxwell’s free kick.
Bonera - 7: Impressive display from the former Parma man, who was equally adept both defensively and offensively. His crossing was also good.
Nesta – 7.5: Proved once again why he is one of, if not the best, centre back in the world. Gave a lesson in the art of slide tackling today.
Kaladze – 6.5: The Georgian breezed through the first 60 minutes without working up a sweat, but had to be alert as Inter upped the ante late in the game.
Favalli – 7: Excellent in the first half before he was forced off on 41 minutes with an ankle injury. Bombed forward repeatedly down the left-hand side. A real surprise.
Ambrosini – 9: Superb in the middle-of-the-park. Ambrosini was first to every ball, got stuck in, distributed well, and was
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Pippo Inzaghi and Kaka won a dramatic derby that ruins Inter's Scudetto celebrations, cutting their lead to just three points!
Rarely has a Derby della Madonnina been so highly charged, as Inter could win the Scudetto and rub their rivals' noses in it, while Milan needed a victory to maintain any hope of reaching a Champions League spot. Bragging rights were also at stake, as the Nerazzurri were on track for a fourth consecutive derby triumph.
There were no suspension worries, but Nelson Dida, Ronaldo, Paolo Maldini, Emerson, Serginho, Olivier Dacourt, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Walter Samuel, Ivan Cordoba and Luis Figo were injured. Nuno Maniche was a surprise choice when Dejan Stankovic failed to recover from a muscular probl
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Kalac – 5.5: A few nervy moments, and one of these almost allowed Vigiani to equalize when the score was 2-1. Was completely blameless on Barreto’s goal.
Cafu - 7: One of Cafu’s best games in a Milan shirt this season. Bombed up-and-down the right flank all afternoon.
Nesta – 6.5: Nullified the threat of Reggina’s lone frontman Amoruso, even if he made one mistake at 2-1 that could have resulted in a leveller for Cozza.
Kaladze – 6: A sound game from the Georgian, even if he did have the odd lapse of concentration. Almost scored down the other end in the first half.
Favalli – 6.5: It is so easy to be critical of Favalli, but today he offered a steady, if not spectacular, performance.
Gattuso – 7: Still failing to convince me that he will ever return to his old levels. But having said this he definitely won the midfield battle today.
Pirlo - 8: A welcome return to form. Some of his through-passes were simply out of this world. A
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Kaka proved he is fully recovered with a magnificent performance and hat-trick in this drubbing of Reggina.
There was no room for error as the Rossoneri needed a win to avoid falling seven points behind Fiorentina. Last week's 3-2 defeat at Juventus was a blow, but even worse was their dismal home form, winning just five times at San Siro. Reggina were on a high after beating Sampdoria 1-0, though they remained in the bottom three and had scored just once in their previous six away games. Curiously, this fixture hadn't ended in a draw for nine editions, since the 2-2 in December 1999.
Alexandre Pato returned from a mysterious muscular injury to sit on the bench, though Daniele Bonera and Massimo Ambrosini were banne
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Juventus will be without Pavel Nedved for the visit of Milan and the Rossoneri are lacking Alessandro Nesta after his disciplinary appeal failed.
Nedved had hoped to feature and had returned to training after being hospitalised by a clash of heads with Roberto Guana during the Bianconeri’s defeat at Palermo last weekend.
However, it seems that the Czech international hasn’t fully recovered from the knock to the head and Coach Claudio Ranieri hasn’t named him in his squad.
“He is better, but he still isn’t heading the ball,” Ranieri explained. “With three games ahead, I decided that it would be better to err on the side of caution.”
Milan stopper Nesta will also have a watching brief after his two-game ban for a red card against Atalanta on March 30 was confirmed.
The former Azzurri star had hoped his appeal would nullify the suspension, but a message on the Diavolo’s official website states that he will miss the crunch match against Juventus.
