“The First Milan Derby in 20 Years – A Semi-Finals Showdown in the Champions League”

The first Milan derby in the semi-finals of the Champions League in 20 years. Main intrigues

One of the finalists of the main European club tournament will be determined in the confrontation between Milan and Inter. The teams will play the Milan semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time since 2003. The main thing about the semi-final meeting – in the material “RBC Sport”

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“Milan” – “Inter”

Date and time: May 10, 22:00

Place: “Giuseppe Meacca” (Milan)

Inter are in fourth place after 34 rounds of the Italian championship with 63 points. The team is fighting for the Champions League zone with Milan, who are in fifth place in the table with 61 points and so far only qualify for the Europa League. At the same time, the gap between Juventus (66 points, second place) and Inter is only three points.

Inter have come a long way in the Champions League this year. He advanced out of the group with Barcelona and Bayern in second place. In the 1/8 finals, the team overcame Porto (1:0 on aggregate), and in the quarterfinals another Portuguese team, Benfica (5:3). Milan managed to leave the quartet from the second place in the group with Chelsea, Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb. In the 1/8 finals, the team left their nets dry: Milan beat London Tottenham with a minimum score of 1:0, and in the 1/4 finals they were stronger than Napoli (2:1 on aggregate).

Milan is at risk of losing one of the team’s most productive strikers, Rafael Leau, due to injury. In 32 games of the Italian championship, he scored 12 goals and seven assists. Inter have questioned the participation of defender Robin Gosens due to a shoulder injury and midfielder Danilo D’Ambrosio due to a hip injury.

The first Milan derby in the 1/2 finals of the Champions League in 20 years

Milan participate in the semi-finals for the first time since the 2006/07 season, Stefano Pioli’s team reached the seventh Champions League semi-final in the club’s history. In the last two semi-finals against Barcelona (season 2005/06) and Manchester United (2006/07), the Milan team lost the first leg, but in the case of the Manchester club, Milan still bounced back in the second leg and reached the final with Liverpool, whom he defeated and won the title.

It is only the third time in their history that Inter have advanced this far in the Champions League. In the 2002/03 season, they met with Milan, who reached the final through an away goal (1:1 on aggregate). In the 2009/10 season, Inter met in the semi-finals with Barcelona (3:2 on aggregate) and reached the final of the tournament, in which they defeated Bayern (2:0).

Milan and Inter will face each other in European competition for the fifth time, and Milan have not lost in the previous four matches. The last time the teams met in the Champions League in the quarter-final match of the 2004/05 season, then Milan turned out to be stronger and reached the final of the tournament (5-0 on aggregate).

The teams have met three times in all tournaments this season. Despite the fact that Milan won the Serie A home match in September (3:2), Inter won the last two meetings in the Italian Super Cup (3:0) and the Italian Championship (1:0).

In the last six matches of the current Champions League draw, Milan conceded only one goal, moreover, the only goal was scored in the last game of the tournament by Napoli striker Victor Osimhen in the 93rd minute. For their part, Inter lost only one of the last six away matches in the Champions League, while keeping four clean sheets.

top scorers

Despite the fact that Milan striker Olivier Giroud failed to convert a penalty in the second leg with Napoli (1:1) in the 22nd minute, already in the 43rd minute, the French striker opened the scoring in the game and put the team ahead.

Giroud is currently the team’s top scorer with five goals and two assists. The last Milan player to score so many goals in the Champions League was Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2011/12 (5).

In the last four rounds of Serie A, Romelu Lukaku scored three goals and three assists, totaling six goals and five assists in the Italian championship season. He also scored a goal in the first game of the quarter-final match against Benfica. In addition, Lukaku has 21 goals scored in 28 matches in the playoffs of major European competitions.