AC Milan repelled wave after wave of second-half attacks to earn a hard-fought point in tonight's 0-0 draw with bitter rivals Inter Milan at the San Siro.
There were no fewer than three disallowed goals throughout the 90 minutes - two for Inter, one for Milan - as Roberto Mancini's side failed to make the most of their dominant second-half performance in the derby.
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Inter started the better of both sides and Hernanes went close on 11 minutes, but his effort was well saved by Diego Lopez.
Suso, one of three changes made by Filippo Inzaghi, had two opportunities in which to vindicate his manager's faith in him but spurned both of them. First, the former Liverpool ace latched on to Ignazio Abate's ball to fire straight at Samir Handanovic on 18 minutes, before being denied by the Nerazzurri stopper again shortly after.
Milan looked in control and thought that they had taken the lead on the half-hour mark when Alex swept home after Philippe Mexes's initial header was saved, but Nigel de Jong was ruled offside.
There was another goal chalked off five minutes after the restart as leading goalscorer Mauro Icardi stroked a superb first-time finish past Lopez, but he too was offside.
As the clash went on so did Icardi in influence, and the Argentine would have opened the scoring shortly before the hour mark but, with an empty net to find, Lopez somehow managed to keep it out.
Mateo Kovacic and Icardi went close again either side of a strong Inter penalty appeal that got dismissed as Mancini's side grew frustrated in their bid to open the scoring.
There was further controversy on 73 minutes when Mexes bundled the ball into his own net before it was chalked off for an earlier infringement, much to the annoyance of Inter after a matter of seconds had passed before it was ruled out.
Next to try to break Milan's resistance was Danilo D'Ambrosio, whose first-time effort whistled narrowly over the bar.
Mattia Destro then nearly snatched the victory for the Rossoneri with what would have been a remarkable smash-and-grab, but Handanovic kept him out late on.
Shane Callaghan
