Milans recent slip up at home to Reggina has left the club eight points adrift of Inter, who made no mistakes on the road against Lecce in the corresponding round of fixtures last Saturday.
With this in mind, the Rossoneri can ill-afford to lose against their cross town rivals this weekend, as defeat will see them slip a further three points behind the Nerazzurri, which will all but end their hopes of clinching this seasons Scudetto.
In the lead up to this match, Adriano Galliani has given his thoughts on the significance of this particular clash, as well as the importance of claiming as many points as possible from here on end.
We are all very calm at present, as we are still dealing with the problems that were associated with our poor performance against Reggina, Galliani affirmed in the interview with Sportsmediaset.
We have to keep in mind throughout the remainder of the season that the difference in the standings with Inter will come from the results we obtain against the weaker opponents.
In fact, against the bottom five sides in the Serie A, we have managed to record 12 points from seven matches, whilst Inter have got 19 from the same amount.
Against the top fifteen in the league however, we have recorded only one less point than the Nerazzurri, he added.
Fortunately we get the chance to play Inter this weekend, and I am sure that we will do well.
Furthermore in 2008 we won both derbies, so we are hoping to do that again this time around.
When we play at our best, it is extremely hard to stop us, he continued.
Compared with our neighbors, we have traditionally been much better in Europe, where you play big games against big teams, which is why we are confident of overcoming them this weekend, he concluded.
Inter and Milan do battle at the San Siro this Sunday evening, with the play set to get underway at 20:30 CET.