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Inter secured the Winter Champions title two rounds early after fighting back to beat Milan 2-1 thanks to a Nelson Dida howler.
The champions of Italy took on the newly-crowned Club World Cup kings in one of the biggest Derby della Madonnina games ever. Milan's Serie A form had been disastrous without a single win and it was their first domestic game since a 0-0 with Juventus on December 1, as they had been in Japan to prepare for that tournament. Ballon d'Or and FIFA Player of the Year Kaka faced off against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Dejan Stankovic, Olivier Dacourt, Luis Figo, Patrick Vieira and Ronaldo were out injured. With Inter as the home side, this fixture last ended in a draw with a 2-2 result in 1999. There was fair play before kick-off with the Inter squad standing by the entrance to applaud 'visitors' Milan as they walked on to the field. Ibrahimovic had the first chance after four minutes with a sensational volley that skimmed the crossbar. At the other end Pippo Inzaghi just failed to get his toe to a Clarence Seedorf searching pass. It was Milan who opened the scoring with an ex-Inter player. Inzaghi was brought down by Ivan Cordoba inside the D and Andrea Pirlo curled a perfect free kick into the near top corner, leaving Julio Cesar rooted to the spot. Inter fought back immediately as Nelson Dida only touched a Julio Cruz cross into the path of Luis Jimenez, the Chilean thumping the crossbar. Dida smothered a Cristian Chivu free kick and Kaka went on a mazy run that drove rings around Walter Samuel, but the defender suffered a knee injury in that move and was stretchered off. Inter drew level with Il Jardinero's 10th goal in 13 Serie A games. Cruz managed to squeeze his left-foot shot in at the near post despite being surrounded by Milan defenders. The Nerazzurri had penalty appeals for a Kakha Kaladze handling offence that the officials considered to be involuntary, but Milan were furious with the referee when he did not give the advantage as Kaka shook off a Marco Materazzi foul. Javier Zanetti flashed a right-foot shot across the face of goal. After the restart Alberto Gilardino and Emerson replaced Inzaghi and the fiery Gattuso, who had been an injury doubt for this game. Kaladze had to time his tackle perfectly to block Ibra's counter, while Chivu did the same on Gilardino. The Rossoneri wasted a golden counter-attack chance, as Pirlo's dummy failed to reach Seedorf, the Italian should have gone for goal on Kaka's assist. Esteban Cambiasso volleyed wide and Milan made their third change, Serginho replacing Seedorf, and within seconds he had created two dangerous opportunities. However, just as Carlo Ancelotti's men were pushing, Cambiasso turned the game around completely. Paolo Maldini's headed clearance became an assist for Cambiasso's left-foot effort that Dida completely misjudged, going the wrong way despite the fact there was no deflection. Julio Cesar was at full stretch to palm away a Kaka piledriver and from the resulting corner Alessandro Nesta and Pirlo couldn't quite get the final touch. Inter clammed up to defend the advantage in the tense closing minutes and Massimo Ambrosini went up as a striker, but arrived early from six yards and almost fell on top of Serginho's cross rather than turning it in unmarked. There had to be several minutes of stoppages, as referee Morganti required treatment for a calf problem. On the counter Ibra blasted over from David Suazo's assist. | 
