Inter Milan lost to crosstown rivals AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup Saturday despite taking the lead in the 22nd minute.
In-demand midfielder Wesley Sneijder fired him team in front with a great free kick after a hard foul from Gennaro Gattuso, who was lucky to remain on the pitch afterwards.
Inter controlled the game for much of the first half and early in the second until their former star Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled Milan level with a header in the 60th minute. Kevin-Prince Boateng scored the winner nine minutes later.
New Inter manager Gian Piero Gasperini used a rarely seen three-man back line, and Milan eventually became accustomed to it and got around it more as the game wore on, so it remains to be seen if that is something the manager will continue to use when the season really gets going.
Inter had got off to a slow start last year, and manager Rafa Benitez was fired in December with the club in seventh place in the table, 13 points behind Milan.
Former Milan coach Leonardo had an immediate impact when he came in in January and eventually pulled Inter up to a second-place finish and the Coppa Italia victory.
However, Leonardo left this summer to be the director of football for newly wealthy Paris Saint-Germain.
Gasperini has come in and will be hoping to avoid the start Benitez had. Though he has lost his first match, his most important take in the coming month is still to retain the services of Wesley Sneijder.
The influential Dutch midfielder was instrumental to Inter's historic, Treble-winning 2009-2010 season, and he will be needed this year if Inter want to reclaim their Serie A crown, among other trophies.
With Manchester United and Manchester City both interested in Sneijder, Gasperini has his work cut out for him to keep him, but it's crucial that he does.
It would be an even bigger ask to usurp Milan at the top without Sneijder.
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