Inter played with 3-5-2 line up. Milan played with 4-2-3-1 line up.
Inter met Milan with high pressing. They were not so aggressive but didn’t let Milan make game from defense comfortably. This time, Milan tried to use forward players with long and direct passes to make game. But they couldn’t be effective from this way. Because after a long ball, even Milan’s one forward could take the ball, because Inter’s midfielders and wing backs were closer to Inter’s defense than Milan’s midfielders, Inter’s midfielders and wing backs could support stoppers quickly and didn’t let Milan’s forward be effective.
After Inter scored a goal, they shifted a little bit behind and downgraded pressing. And Milan’s one of the defensive midfielders or full backs closed to defense line to be the third stopper. This time, from half-spaces, Milan could be more comfortable in back. Because to support Inter’s centre forward about pressing, one of the midfielders had to shift to forward. And before he came for pressing, Milan’s defenders found enough space to make game from half-spaces. And Milan’s offensive midfielder started to take position closer to centre forward. Also right winger closed to midfield.
But all these things didn’t help to Milan to make game effectively. Defenders could find enough spaces in half-spaces but Milan’s forwards were not good about movement in forward. So defenders couldn’t pass to them quickly. Milan’s positioning changes in forward didn’t work because now only players’ names changed. Still there were players in same spaces. And positioning changes were not coordinated so they couldn’t confuse Inter’s defenders’ minds. With little shifts, Inter’s players could cover Milan’s players comfortably.
In the second half, Milan started to be more effective. In the second half, full backs started to take position in half-spaces and wingers close to midfield more. It helped to Milan to pass Inter’s midfield line. Because when full backs closed to half-space, they started to be a direct threat for Inter’s midfielders. Because from half-space, if Milan’s players could find space, they could be effective centrally. So this time Inter’s 3 midfielders had to cover 3 Milan midfielders and 2 full backs at the same time. Inter had a numerical disadvantage with 3 vs 5.
Normally, if Inter’s centre forwards could support midfielders about defending, they could equal numerically. And they supported but it wasn’t enough. We can understand from a situation.
For example, in this situation, Milan tries to make game. Left stopper has the ball and Inter’s right centre forward meets him.
When he passes to left back, all Inter’s midfielders had to shift to right a little bit to support pressing. Inter’s right centre midfielder meets left back and he can’t meet him quickly. Because he was taking position closer to centre, so to meet half-space, he loses time and can’t cover left back quickly. It gives left back extra time and space to look at his pass options.
Inter’s right centre forward closes to Milan’s left defensive midfielder to cover him. But he can’t cover him. Because when he started to close to Milan’s left defensive midfielder, Milan’s left defensive midfielder started to close to forward to be a pass option for left back too. So the distance between Inter’s right centre forward and Milan’s left defensive midfielder doesn’t change. Still Milan’s left defensive midfielder has enough space.
Left back can pass to left defensive midfielder. Inter’s right centre midfielder couldn’t obstruct left back to pass to left defensive midfielder because as I said before, because left back was in half-space, Inter’s right centre midfielder couldn’t close to left back quickly. And Milan’s left defensive midfielder has enough space and time to be effective with the ball because Inter’s right centre forward and defensive midfielder can’t close to him quickly. I explained right centre forward’s situation so I won’t explain again. And Inter’s defensive midfielder was matching with Milan’s offensive midfielder so he couldn’t close to Milan’s left defensive midfielder either.
So now it’s easy for Milan to make game because now they just have to pass to the free player. In this situation, Milan’s right back closes to forward from half-space as a free player and Milan’s players can pass to him comfortably and quickly. And after right back has the ball, because Inter’s defense line wasn’t supporting midfield, left stopper doesn’t close to Milan’s right back quickly and Milan’s right back is completely free. Milan scored the second goal from this way.
Milan’s wingers could benefit from defense line’s not supporting to midfield. When wingers came to midfield, they had enough time and space to be effective with the ball because Inter’s wing backs didn’t close to Milan’s wingers immediately if wingers were closing to midfield.