{"id":67953,"date":"2014-11-24T06:07:35","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T06:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=67953"},"modified":"2014-11-24T06:07:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-24T06:07:35","slug":"muntari-essien-start-ac-milan-derby-draw-inter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=67953","title":{"rendered":"Muntari, Essien start for AC Milan in derby draw with Inter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inter Milan fought back from a goal down to earn a draw in the Milan derby on Roberto Mancini’s return as manager.<\/p>\n

Mancini – who guided Inter to three league titles before leaving in 2008 – saw his side fall behind to Jeremy Menez’s superb side-footed volley.<\/p>\n

But Inter – who stay ninth – levelled with Joel Obi’s low shot from 18 yards.<\/p>\n

Both sides sought a win and Stephan El Shaarawy wasted a great chance for AC Milan, hitting the bar, before Inter’s Mauro Icardi hit the post.<\/p>\n

Endeavour from the sides – who share the same ground – was evident but since Mancini’s departure six years ago, both have become Serie A also-rans.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old has since been employed by Manchester City and Galatasaray but the\u00a0side he has inherited from the sacked Walter Mazzarri\u00a0is a shadow of the one he built in three years from 2005.<\/p>\n

In his last Milan derby, Mancini’s side included Patrick Vieira, Esteban Cambiasso and Hernan Crespo, with Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo and Kaka offering quality for the Rossoneri.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

Jeremy Menez’s volley notched his fifth goal of the season<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Such glittering names were sparse on this occasion, with Chelsea loanee Fernando Torres peripheral for Milan – themselves only a point better off in seventh.<\/p>\n

Mancini has warned he does not hold a “magic wand” to bring a return to the dominance he once cultivated at the Nerazzurri, but a dream start to his tenure almost arrived when Icardi raced on to a loose Sulley Muntari pass in midfield, only for Diego Lopez to produce a smart save.<\/p>\n

The Spanish keeper’s good work was quickly rewarded when Menez so deftly guided a delightful side-foot volley past the dive of Samir Handanovic.<\/p>\n

It was a moment of true quality, a fifth goal of the season for the summer signing from Paris St-Germain and earned Filippo Inzaghi’s side a half-time lead.<\/p>\n

But the meeting of the two sides – locally known as the Derby della Madonnina – is fiercely competitive. Inter, with 76 wins, have just two more derby victories than their rivals.<\/p>\n

Obi fired through the legs of a defender from the edge of the area to level before El Shaarawy ran on to a pass to smash against the woodwork at the other end.<\/p>\n

With neither side playing Champions League football this year and wins needed to bridge the gap to the qualification places in this campaign, both were positive in the late stages.<\/p>\n

Icardi swivelled on a volley to hit the angle of post and crossbar for Inter and when Milan’s Andrea Poli saw a shot deflect agonisingly wide in injury time, the points were shared for only the second time since 2004.<\/p>\n

\"Joel<\/p>\n

Joel Obi celebrated his equaliser with some well-executed gymnastics<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inter Milan fought back from a goal down to earn a draw in the Milan derby on Roberto Mancini’s return as manager. Mancini – who guided Inter to three league titles before leaving in 2008 – saw his side fall behind to Jeremy Menez’s superb side-footed volley. But Inter – who stay ninth – levelled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":67954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-67953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}