April 21, Milan In a highly anticipated derby between two titans of Italian football, Inter Milan will play their local rivals AC Milan on Monday with the chance to win their 20th Serie A championship.Here, AFP Sport examines four of the most significant games in the annals of a legendary city derby.
2003: Milan wins and advances to the Champions League
Dreams of Milan supporters were realized in 2003 when they defeated Juventus in the Old Trafford final and Inter in the semi-finals of the Champions League, establishing Italian football as the dominant force in Europe.Two clubs full of legendary players faced off over two legs at a normally electrifying San Siro. Andriy Shevchenko’s first goal in the return match right before halftime put Milan in the Old Trafford final on away goals.
After an extremely stressful match in England, Milan went on to win one of the most memorable victories in the club’s history—over Juventus on penalties.
2005: The Sham Derby
Adriano Galliani, the previous managing director of Milan, was frantic to avoid being drawn with another Italian team prior to the 2005 Champions quarterfinals draw.
Galliani, Silvio Berlusconi’s right-hand man during Milan’s heyday, had no intention of repeating that 2003 experience, and even if the Rossoneri would win again, it might have been preferable if the tie had never happened.
Milan’s 2-0 victory in the first leg would have eased Galliani’s concerns, but the return encounter ended up being one of the most notorious in European football history for all the wrong reasons.
Shevchenko broke the tie in the 30th minute of the second leg, but the Inter fans were incensed after a goal disallowed by Esteban Cambiasso, and they threw a flurry of flares onto the field, one of which struck Milan goalkeeper Dida.
After the players were told to return to their dressing rooms, Milan won the so-called “Derby of Shame” 3-0 and advanced to the semifinals 5-0 overall.
For Inter fans, it wasn’t all bad either, as they witnessed one of the most exciting Champions League finals ever, Milan losing on penalties to Liverpool after blowing a three-goal lead at halftime.
1988: Milan is dominated by Sacchi
By the time Silvio Berlusconi, who had saved the struggling club from bankruptcy the year before, appointed little-known Arrigo Sacchi as coach in 1987, Milan had been devoid of a league title for eight years.
Both Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit came that summer, and Gullit scored in a lopsided Milan derby that Sacchi’s squad won 2-0 in late April 1988. Sacchi’s club went on to defeat Diego Maradona’s Napoli to win the Scudetto that year.
It was the first significant trophy of Berlusconi’s protracted ownership of Milan and marked the beginning of their transformation into the European superpower that they hadn’t been since Gianni Rivera’s heyday in the 1960s.
2009: Inter, the treble winners, smash Milan
Interisti will always adore Jose Mourinho for leading their team to the Serie A, Italian Cup, and Champions League triple in 2010, which will go down as most likely the greatest season ever for any Inter squad.
Since the “Calciopoli” match-fixing scandal had hurt both Milan and the other established powerhouse Juventus, Inter was already the dominant team in Italy. A 4-0 thrashing of Milan in August 2009 was a sign of things to come.
After 35 minutes, Thiago Motta and a Diego Milito penalty put Inter ahead by two, and shortly later, Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso was sent off.
In stoppage time in the first half, Maicon added the third, and halfway through the second half, Dejan Stankovic’s spectacular shot sealed the thrashing.
Inter would go on to win the Champions League that year, defeating Bayern Munich in the final, and win Serie A before Mourinho left for Real Madrid, capping off a fruitful era of Nerazzurri supremacy.