A Inter Milan secured their spot in the semifinals of the Champions League by drawing 3-3 with Benfica, making the 2-0 victory in Lisbon worth it, and now they will face their archrivals, Milan.
“We are happy and proud to wear this shirt and represent this great club. I play to win everything. The club deserves to be in the semifinals and it will be a very special derby”, declared Lautaro, chosen as the best player of the match.
And he could also be the last hope of salvation for his coach, Simone Inzaghi, much questioned after the bad results of the season… at least until he faces Milan in three weeks, who advanced to the semifinals on Tuesday with the draw in 1-1 away from home against Napoli.
“It’s an important night for the whole club (…) We’ve all worked hard to experience nights like this and which Inter have been away from for a long time”, said the coach after the game.
Italy thus guarantees the return to a Champions League final, something that has not happened since Juventus lost 4-1 to Real Madrid in 2017, but it will not be the first time that the two giants of the Lombard capital have crossed paths in the main continental club competition.
They already faced each other in the semi-finals of the 2002-2003 season and Milan won thanks to the greater number of goals in the opposing field (0-0 and 1-1), and the ‘Rossonero’ team ended up winning the sixth of their seven ‘Ears’ in the final against another Italian team, Juventus, on penalties.
They met again three seasons later (2004-2005), this time in the quarterfinals. The result was the same: classification for Milan, who won both games (2-0 and 3-0), although on that occasion Barcelona had beaten the Milanists in the final.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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