AC Milan 1 Inter Milan 0:JOSE MOURINHO and Ronaldinho have met before. In March 2006 the Brazilian scored a goal for Barcelona which made sure Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League.

In Italy they call the San Siro stadium "La Scala del Calcio" after the famous Milan theatre and last night Ronaldinho took centre stage once again, this time to ruin Mourinho's first derby as Internazionale coach, scoring the only goal of the game in Milan's 1-0 win.

The goal that ended Mourinho's unbeaten start as Inter manager came after 39 minutes as Kaka beat the offside trap on the right to pick up a long pass from Ronaldinho. The attacking midfielder returned the pass to Ronaldinho, who outjumped Esteban Cambiasso and headed in from 10 metres before producing a typical Brazilian dance to celebrate his first Serie A goal.

With three central strikers on the pitch Inter started to attack en masse but a Milan defence orchestrated by the veteran Paolo Maldini, playing his 55th Milan derby, stood firm as Julio Cruz and Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed good chances.

Nicholas Burdisso's sending-off after 76 minutes for a foul on Kaka made Inter's difficult task even worse. Materazzi was then sent off from the substitutes' bench for arguing with the referee.

With seven minutes to play Andriy Shevchenko replaced Ronaldinho. The Ukrainian went close to scoring the goal he was dreaming about since leaving Chelsea to return to Milan but was denied by a stupendous save by Julio Cesar.

In added time Adriano somehow managed to head wide from two metres after a cross from Quaresma. It was the last opportunity for Inter with Mourinho losing his first derby, his first competitive game and first place in Serie A all at once.

Guardian Service