While United may have played out yet another eventful but scoreless draw since their San Siro encounter, Inter Milan have not been doing more of the same.

In fact, in one of the more thrilling encounters in the Seria A, Inter came back being behind twice, once from 2 goals down, to secure a 3-3 draw against Roma.

Roma went ahead thanks to strikes by Daniele de Rossi and Riise, taking the early lead in the 23rd minute when Daniele De Rossi headed in Marco Motta's cross. Three minutes later, Roma doubled their lead. Juan hit a long pass over Maicon and John Arne Riise outmuscled the Brazilian and poked the ball past the onrushing Cesar.

Mario Balotelli brought Inter back into the match five minutes into the second half. Adriano held the ball up in the Roma box, before picking out Balotelli whose low shot beat Roma goalkeeper Doni.

Roma restored their two-goal lead on 57 minutes when Mirko Vucinic and Julio Baptista linked up to put Matteo Brighi into space and the midfielder raced into Inter's box before slotting low past Cesar.

Balotelli then grabbed his second from the penalty spot, holding his nerve after being felled by De Rossi on 63 minutes. Spalletti had an understandably different view point about the penalty award.

Inter drew level when Crespo headed in a Luis Figo cross at the near post for his first goal of the season. He nearly added his second moments later, but could only head Maicon's cross over the bar.

Riise came close to scoring a second five minutes from time, but Cesar pushed his powerful free kick away for a corner. De Rossi then had a fantastic opportunity to win the match in the last minute, but dragged his shot wide.

The game was full of sub-plots and Crespo was clearly among the key ones. He has had to endure being pushed down behind Zlatan, Adriano and Balotelli, but although Mourinho is quick to use Crespo as a benchmark for how to behave when left out of the team, he has been less reluctant to give the Argentinian a real chance. He had actually come to the ground to watch the game but following Ibrahimovic's injury in the warm up, he was asked to join the squad and made a substitute appearance in 78 minutes, scoring his first goal of the season almost immediately. "In my celebration there was both joy and rage... I want to dedicate this goal to my little girls, who are in front of a telly right now and have often seen me return home sad. Next year I will definitely change team."

Its quite amazing to think that Quaresma's spot on the Champions League team went to Nelson Rivas, who had such a terrible game against United, rather than to Crespo. Mopurinho works in mysterious ways, but his tactics are, as always, spot on. He switched formation at half time, pushing Balotelli wide and played a 3-3-3-1 formation with Cambiasso venturing upfield, and it paid dividends. Balotelli won his battle with the Roma fans leading Mourinho to comment "On the pitch Mario doesn't fear anyone and he doesn't respect anyone," said Mourinho afterwards. "I like him this way."

The draw cost Inter 2 points off their lead at the top of the table, but Mourinho, ever the expert of the soundbyte, said "A point is gold from a match like this. The match seemed lost at 3-1. My team deserves this point, not for the quality of play. Their character made the difference."

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