Jonathan Liew was at San Siro. His report is here. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night.
Milan defender Fikayo Tomori talks to BT. “We’re obviously disappointed … the way we started the game … it’s a kick in the teeth … the first half took us a while to get back in the game … the second half was better … there was anxiety in the team and you can’t give them a millimetre … it was difficult but it was only the first game … we know if we play with the right intensity then we can put them in a bit of bother … we can’t dwell on it and have to move on to the next game.”
Inter striker Edin Dzeko speaks to BT Sport. “It feels very good … especially because it’s a derby … on paper we played away, so it’s a great result for us … sometimes you get difficult moments when the ball doesn’t want to go in, but patience and work always pays off, so I was calm knowing the goals would come … today is the proof … we are an experienced team … we know we have a great result for the second leg but nothing is finished … only great teams arrive in the semi-finals so we have to be careful … we have to concentrate … we have a good result but nothing yet is finished … we will concentrate even more … we will not think about the first leg … we have to be careful because they are still a good team.”
FULL TIME: Milan 0-2 Internazionale
A scoreline that flatters Milan. Had the VAR been in a different mood, and ruled differently on a couple of borderline decisions, this tie could already be as good as over. As it stands, Inter have a huge advantage going into the second leg … not least because the San Siro will be full of their fans next time.
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90 min +3: Gagliardini goes down holding his head. Play stops.
90 min +2: Origi flicks a long ball towards Pobega, who sends a daisycutter straight at Onana. Easy for the keeper.
90 min: There will be four additional minutes.
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89 min: Gagliardini is brought down by Thiaw out on the right. Barella’s delivery into the box is claimed by Maignan. This match is petering out a little bit.
87 min: Pobega leaves a sly one on Bastoni as the pair compete for a loose ball. The referee deems it accidental. Studs on knee, it’ll have hurt, this much we know for sure.
85 min: Hernandez takes the free kick himself, and it’s worse than useless. Miles high and yards wide left to boot. Gagliardini breathes a sigh of relief after his manic minute.
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84 min: A huge chance for Inter. Lukaku and Barella combine cutely down the middle to release, of all people, Gagliardini, who should shoot but takes a touch away from goal and the chance is gone. Then up the other end, Gagliardini clips Hernandez, and this is a big chance for Milan, a free kick 25 yards out in a central position.
82 min: Another Milan double swap: Calabria and Diaz are replaced by Kalulu and Pobega.
81 min: Messias cuts back from the byline to the right of goal before attempting to whip a shot into the bottom left. Easy for Onana.
80 min: Inter have done a good job of drawing that mid-second-half Milan sting.
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78 min: Calhanoglu and Martinez are replaced by Gagliardini and Correa. Meanwhile while that was happening, there was another VAR check, Calhanoglu’s last act having been to blooter a shot straight at Thiaw, the ball slapping the Milan defender on the arm. But nothing doing. That would have been harsh.
76 min: As the corner comes in, Krunic gives Bastoni a slap across the nipples. Bastoni goes down and rolls about. VAR has a check, but goes easy on the Milan man. Tell you what, while it would have been terribly soft, it was also rank stupidity from Krunic, and you’ve seen penalties and red cards given for less. VAR has gone easy on Milan tonight.
74 min: Lukaku bustles brilliantly down the left. The ball ends up in the Milan box with Martinez, then Darmian, neither of whom can get a proper shot away. But they do force a corner on the left.
72 min: Calhanoglu has the opportunity to spray a speculative pass forward to Lukaku, but is more than happy to draw a foul from Tonali and take his sweet time over the restart. The clock, and indeed the calendar, is already Inter’s friend.
70 min: Inter make a double change, replacing Dimarco and Dzeko with De Vrij and Lukaku.
69 min: Tomori is booked for sticking his knee in Dzeko’s special area.
68 min: Acerbi flashes a long-distance effort towards the top-right corner. Easy for Maignan, and the end of a long-ish period of Inter possession that calmed the San Siro crowd down a little bit.
66 min: Diaz wins a corner for Milan down the right. Tonali takes. Dzeko heads clear. The bedlam continues. Bedlam bedlam bedlam.
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65 min: It’s getting rowdier in San Siro. Flares lit, firecrackers explode. Origi, who knows a thing or two about supersubbing in the Champions League, waltzes down the left and nearly finds Diaz in the middle. Inter clear, but they’re under a bit of pressure again.
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63 min: Origi busies himself down the left and slips a clever ball infield for Diaz, who finds Tonali on the edge of the Inter D. Tonali creams a low drive off the outside of the left-hand post. He wants a corner, and there was a slight deflection, but he’s not getting what he’s due. The closest Milan have come.
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62 min: Inter respond to Milan’s double change by replacing Mkhitaryan with Brozovic.
61 min: Krunic sashays down the inside-right channel only to be shoulder barged to the floor by Dimarco, just to the right of the D. No foul, then the referee blows for a Giroud handball, much to the double irritation of the Milanese.
59 min: … and so Milan make a double change. Saelemaekers and Kjaer make way for Thiaw and Origi.
58 min: Dzeko strides down the middle, all power and poise, before feeding Martinez to his right. Martinez knocks the ball down the channel but fails to win a footrace with Kjaer. After a bright period of play for Milan, it’s Inter who once again look the more likely.
56 min: Tonali drags a harmless long-distance effort way wide left. “Not wishing to tempt fate for Manchester City,” begins Stephen Bradfield, “but could we be in for a repeat of the 1964 final when Inter beat the Real Madrid of Di Stéfano, Puskás and Gento 3-1?”
55 min: Maignan clumps a simple clearance straight at Martinez. The ball flies out for a throw, but could have gone anywhere. Milan had started the second half brightly, but their heads are clearly still swimming. They’re very fortunate Inter haven’t put further distance between the teams.
53 min: Bastoni dribbles into an absurd gap down the middle of the park and slips Dzeko into the Milan box. Dzeko is one on one with Maignan. Easy as that! Where was the Milan midfield, never mind their defence? Fortunately for Milan, Maignan blocks out for a corner, and nothing comes of the resulting set piece. So close to a third for Inter … again.
51 min: Tonali wanders down the middle before threading a fine diagonal pass towards Messias, sending him free down the inside-right channel. Messias opens his body and attempts to steer across Onana and into the bottom left, but it’s always sailing harmlessly wide. Inter ripped open for the first time tonight. Much better from Milan.
49 min: Diaz attempts to send a curler into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the Inter D. Close, but Onana had it covered. A decent start to the half by Milan, though.
48 min: Hernandez hoicks towards the far stick. Giroud contorts in mid-air in the hope of connecting with a volley, but only manages to accidentally clip Dumfries instead. Everyone friendly afterwards.
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47 min: Diaz busies himself down the middle of the park and earns Milan a free kick 35 yards out. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Inter box in anticipation.
Milan get the second half underway. No changes in personnel; a change in approach and attitude from Milan, though, surely?
That penalty incident, then. There was some contact between Kjaer and Martinez; Martinez certainly made the most of it. But as Peter Walton on BT says, once the referee had pointed to the spot, “it’s not the decision of the VAR to second guess the referee in terms of how much contact is required for a player to fall over … the player is moving at speed, it might have been the slightest of contacts, the referee has seen that and given it … once the VAR sees that contact, he doesn’t then have the evidence to go back to the referee and say there was no contact … it’s not down to the VAR to say there isn’t enough contact, that’s the referee’s job.” In short: Milan got away with one there.
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HALF TIME: Milan 0-2 Internazionale
Advantage Nerazzurri. Advantage very much to the Nerazzurri.
45 min +3: After a fashion, Mkhitaryan also finds himself in the book for that aforementioned incident.
45 min +1: The first of four extra minutes sees Mkhitaryan clap Diaz across the chops with a stray arm. Krunic wants the Inter midfielder booked, but cops a yellow card himself for getting too far up in the referee’s grille.
45 min: Saelemaekers dances in gracefully from the left flank. He beats a couple of challenges before running into Dumfries, who takes the ball off his toe and clears. That’s better from Leao’s replacement, who has been otherwise anonymous.
43 min: The ball drops to Giroud in the Inter box, but the Milan striker can’t get his shot away. Onana still hasn’t had any serious work to do.
41 min: Calabria whistles a cross into the Inter box from the right. A brief game of pinball. Eventually the “visitors” clear their lines. A half-hearted shout for a penalty, but the ball had hit Darmian on his front tail.
39 min: Dumfries barrels down the right and is unceremoniously cleaned out by Hernandez, who cuts across him at speed. You’ve seen yellow cards for less, but this referee is clearly trying to keep everything civil, which is fair enough.
37 min: Milan wanted a yellow card for Martinez back there, suggesting he’d gone down far too easily in looking for the penalty. They didn’t get their wish.
35 min: Milan set about looking that gift horse in the mouth, shipping chances to Martinez and Dumfries in short order. They’re lucky that Martinez leaned back and shot over, and that Dumfries doesn’t have telescopic legs, unable to connect properly with a poke goalwards from a left-wing cross.
VAR: No penalty!
33 min: A huge lifeline for Milan! VAR ushers the referee over to the monitor, and the decision to award the penalty – and book Kjaer – is overturned! It looked like a spot kick on first viewing, so that’s a big decision all right. Kjaer evidently didn’t touch him enough, then … but was that so clear and obvious? The answer to that question is neither clear nor obvious!
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Penalty for Internazionale!
31 min: Martinez spins away from Tomori and Kjaer, down the inside-right channel and into the Milan box. Kjaer clips Martinez, and it’s a yellow card and a penalty!
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30 min: Milan finally get something together, Messias crossing low from the right, Calabria backflicking towards the unguarded bottom-right corner of the goal. The side netting ripples.
28 min: Diaz and Giroud attempt to combine down the inside-right channel but the latter is caught offside. Diaz, frustrated, gets involved in a childish shoving match with the bigger Bastoni. There’d only be one winner had that developed, but the referee puts a stop to it quickly enough.
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26 min: Dzeko, deep on the left flank, nearly releases Martinez down the middle with a raking diagonal pass. Martinez is swarmed, though a better touch might have taken him away from the Milan defenders.
24 min: Dzeko enters the Milan box down the right, shifts his feet, and sends an ambitious effort, intended for the top right, wide and high. Milan aren’t out of this yet, of course they’re not, but if they keep on like this, it might not be too long before they are.
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23 min: Saelemaekers is stripped of possession and Dzeko steams past Tomori in the centre circle with ease. He can’t quite force a pass through to Martinez on the left. Had he done so, the striker was clear on goal. Milan are a rabble.
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21 min: Dzeko slips a pass down the left for Dimarco. His cross is gratefully received by Maignan. It’s all Inter, and while there’s still a lot of noise in San Siro, it’s all being made by the (technically travelling) away support.
19 min: A decent stat here courtesy of Sky: the 37-year-old Dzeko has become the second-oldest semi-final scorer in Champions League history. Ryan Giggs was slightly older when he notched for Manchester United against Schalke in 2011.
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17 min: If things weren’t already bad enough for Milan, Bennacer goes off limping. He’s replaced by Messias.
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15 min: Milan are all over the shop! Calhanoglu, 25 yards out on the left, sends a rising rasper across Maignan and off the inside of the right-hand post. That’s an absolute screamer! The rebound is teed up for Mkhitaryan, whose low drive is kicked away by the Milan keeper. Inches away from a three-goal lead within a quarter of an hour!
14 min: Giroud and Saelemaekers both go down as the corner comes across. The referee shows no interest whatsoever. VAR has a quick look, but there’s nothing going for Milan right now. We play on.
13 min: Saelemaekers, in for the injured Leao, wins Milan’s first corner of the game, down the left. Tonali to take.
12 min: A shame for Inter that away goals don’t count these days, huh.
GOAL! Milan 0-2 Internazionale (Mkhitaryan 11)
This is sensational! Some space for Dimarco down the left. He fires a low cross towards Martinez, who dummies on the edge of the D and allows Mkhitaryan to come in behind him, take a touch down the middle and into the Milan box, and slam a shot across Maignan and into the left-hand side of the net!
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10 min: Dzeko did so well to get to the ball ahead of Calabria. The Milan captain was rooted to the spot as the Inter striker powered around him from behind to whistle that volley home.
GOAL! Milan 0-1 Internazionale (Dzeko 8)
This is such a sweet strike. The corner’s swung in from the left by Dimarco. Dzeko meets the dropping ball, eight yards out, and blisters a sidefooted volley into the top right! Easy as that.
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7 min: Dimarco’s delivery is knocked on by Acerbi and pings off Tonali for the first corner of the evening. It’ll come in from the left.
6 min: Dzeko knocks the ball past Tomori down the Inter left and is brought down for his trouble. A free kick and a chance to load the Milan box.
4 min: It’s all a bit scrappy. Kjaer blooters forward in the 1980s English style. Onana gathers. On BT Sport, pundit Rio Ferdinand claims he’s never experienced an atmosphere like this. His awe is genuine and palpable.
2 min: The noise at San Siro is absolutely deafening. That unique Italian sound. Sweet music.
24 sec: Hernandez comes in late on Dumfries. A high-intensity start. A bit later in the game and that could have been a yellow.
Internazionale get the ball rolling. This time next week, we’ll know which one of these teams has become the first Italian finalist since Juventus in 2017. Quite a way to go yet.
The teams are out! We’ve already established what they’re wearing. You won’t need telling what the atmosphere is like at San Siro. Let’s just pay indirect homage to Zadok the Priest and take it from there. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
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Pre-match postbag. “If you had told me in November that an Italian club would make the Champions League final, I would have thought, ‘Well done Napoli!’ That’ll teach me” – Joe Pearson
“Henrikh Mkhitaryan lives in my head as the scorer of soccer’s first ‘scorpian kick’ goal, although no doubt there were others before his. It’d certainly be a nice sting in the tail if the former United man was to thwart City in the CL final. Because we all know that United aren’t going to deny Pep’s lot their treble on current form” – Justin Kavanagh
“The lineups from tonight rather take me back to the heady days when Scottish clubs were regularly at the business end of European competitions, and one often had to acknowledge the fact that the players on the other side had better names than we did. This thought has undeniably been prompted by Alex Reid’s Forty Years On article today but when you consider the cadence of Leighton, Cooper, McLeish, Miller and Rougvie - as opposed to Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni and Dumfries - you realise there’s only one of them would have made the Aberdeen team” – Scott Blair
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How the teams got here. Inter came second behind Bayern Munich in the groups, knocking out Barcelona as a result, while Milan were runners-up to Chelsea. In the first knockout round, Milan saw off Spurs while Inter did for Porto, and then in the quarters, this happened …
The big Guardian semi-final pennant face-off. The Rossoneri – it would make no sense otherwise – play in red and black stripes. Their pennant is however predominantly white. A nod to the fact that six of their seven European Cups were won wearing their second-choice white gear? Maybe! Or perhaps not.
By way of contrast, the Nerazzurri do as the Nerazzurri are. Black and blue all over. It’s also possible to ascertain who they’re playing without squinting extremely painfully. An early blow landed by Inter.
A big blow for Milan: Rafael Leao failed a fitness test this morning and misses out altogether. Leao picked up a muscle problem against Lazio last weekend. The Rossoneri can however call on Olivier Giroud, who won this competition with Chelsea in 2021, and substitute Divock Origi, who settled the 2019 final in Liverpool’s favour.
Inter drop another erstwhile Premier League favourite, Romelu Lukaku, to the bench. Lautaro Martinez returns to their starting line-up. Defensive doubts Danilo D’Ambrosio and Robin Gosens have been passed fit, but are only named as subs.
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The teams
Milan: Maignan, Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez, Krunic, Tonali, Bennacer, Saelemaekers, Giroud, Diaz.
Subs: Mirante, Nava, Ballo, Rebic, Kalulu, Origi, Thiaw, Messias, Pobega, Gabbia, De Ketelaere.
Internazionale: Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Martinez, Dzeko.
Subs: Handanovic, Cordaz, Gagliardini, De Vrij, Gosens, Correa, Bellanova, Asllani, D’Ambrosio, Zanotti, Brozovic, Lukaku.
Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain)
🎶 Noi vogliamo 11 leoni! 🎶#RednBlack #MilanInter #UCL #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/WXkfv6t7fM
— AC Milan (@acmilan) May 10, 2023
The news you've been waiting for 🚨👇#ForzaInter #MilanInter #UCL pic.twitter.com/24bPKeIZTj
— Inter (@Inter_en) May 10, 2023
Preamble
Milan and Internazionale have met in the semi-finals of the Champions League before, and it was tight. Back in 2003, Milan advanced to the final after 0-0 and 1-1 draws, Andriy Shevchenko’s second-leg away goal the difference, albeit on something of a technicality, given both teams play at the same stadium. The clubs met again two years later, this time in the quarters, when administration again reared its ugly head, Milan winning the first leg 2-0 before being awarded the second 3-0, the match abandoned after goalkeeper Dida was hit upside the head by an Inter supporter’s flare.
Eighteen years later, the Milanese meet for the third time in Europe’s greatest competition … and once again, it’s likely to be tight and fiercely contested. Milan are the reigning/outgoing champions of Italy; Inter are ahead of Milan in this year’s Serie A table. Milan won their home fixture against Inter 3-2, thanks to goals from Rafael Leao (2) and Olivier Giroud; Inter won the reverse 1-0 as a result of Lautaro Martinez’s strike. Inter also won last season’s two-legged Coppa Italia semi-final 3-0 on aggregate, so while Milan have the best of it historically in the Champions League, Inter nick the more recent form domestically.
Good luck calling this, then. What we can say for sure, though, is that the Rossoneri and the Nerazzurri are both genuine European royalty, continental champions seven and three times respectively. Both clubs sparkle with that old-school stardust from the early golden era of the European Cup, Gianni Rivera and Jose Altafini, Sandro Mazzola and Giacinto Facchetti, Nereo Rocco and Helenio Herrera, all that. Both clubs are on the up again. Kick off at San Siro is at 8pm BST, 9pm local. It’s on!
