The Lombard capital, the only city to have two European champion teams, will therefore have one of its teams in the final on June 10 in Istanbul, against Manchester City or Real Madrid.
It remains to be known if it will be the ‘rossonero’ clubwith seven ‘Orejonas’ to his credit (the last in 2007) and his great rival ‘Nerazzurri’, champion three times (the last in 2010).
If the other semifinal between Pep Guardiola’s City and Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid will perhaps oppose the two best in terms of play, the ‘derbissimo’ is announced as a high point of passions and dand history between the two neighbors, who will face each other for the 236th time.
“It is not a derby, but ‘the derby’. We know what it represents for the club, for the players, the ‘tifosi'”, recalled interista coach Simone Inzaghi.
In the Champions League, the two rivals of the Madonnina, the name of the virgin that crowns the Milan Duomo, and which lends its name to the derby, They have already met four times.
But the last one goes back almost twenty years, at a time when Serie A still had the biggest stars in football, some of whom, like Andrei Shevchenko or Cafu, will witness the clash from the stands.
– Inter fit –
In 2003 it was in the semifinals: AC Milan qualified thanks to a goal scored away from home (0-0, 1-1), something not without irony because the two clubs share the same stadium, San Siro or Giuseppe Meazza, according to which of the two teams is the one that exercises local.
The other 100% Milanese confrontation in the Champions League dates from 2005, with the sad memory of the flare launched by the Tifosi Interistas and which hit goalkeeper Dida on the head, a game that was interrupted and won in the offices by AC Milan, who had already won 2-0 in the first leg.
Ancelotti was coach of AC Milan that confirmed in those four duels the hegemony of the Rossoneri in the Champions League. Not surprisingly, Milan is the second most successful team in the competition behind the inaccessible Real Madrid (14 titles).
But will the weight of history be enough for the confidence of Inter Milan?
Simone Inzaghi’s team have won both derbies played in 2023, inflicting a corrective on Milan in the Italian Super Cup (3-0) in January before winning in Serie A (1-0).
Despite a course with ups and downs, the Nerazzurri have always been present in this Champions Leagueemerging unscathed from a difficult group with Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona, both out of the European race.
– Leao’s doubt –
And they arrive in great shape at the end of the season, with a series of five victories among all competitions, having beaten Juventus, Lazio and Roma, scoring fifteen goals.
Romelu Lukaku shows off the well-adjusted crosshairs with five goals since the beginning of April, and has recovered his connection with the Argentine Lautaro Martínez.
AC Milan, for its part, could be forced to do without its offensive arrow Rafael Leao, who quickly withdrew on Saturday against Lazio (2-0). after an alert in the adductor of his right thigh.
“He will try to force (Wednesday morning) and we will decide what to do.” explained on Tuesday the coach Stefano Pioli, who knows that his team is not the same without ‘Rafa’: the Rossoneri have only won one game this season out of the ten in which the Portuguese did not start or lost it for whatever reason.
Leao was decisive in the quarterfinals of the Champions League against Napoliwith a goal pass in the first leg (1-0) and another in the second leg after a fantastic gallop (1-1).
Milan will need their game at an uncertain end of the season, in which they can dream of winning the Champions League, but they should not neglect the option of obtaining a ticket via Serie A for the next edition of the highest European competition. The current champion of the ‘Scudetto’ currently occupies fifth place in the table.
