Milan-Inter 20 years later

The Derbi della Madonnina it will be played again in this edition of the Champions League and also in the semifinals

The Italians are back! Inter Milan and Milan will once again play a semi-final pair in the Champions League after 20 years, while Serie A will have a representative in the Champions League final for the first time since 2017. That is, in 2017, Real Madrid, architected by Zinedine Zidane, had crush Juventus 4-1 at Cardiff Millennium…

So a full 20 years have passed since the last time two Italian teams crossed swords for the semi-finals of the Champions League. It was the 2002/2003 season, when Inter and Milan faced each other with the goal of a place in the grand final. In the first leg at the San Siro with AC Milan as usual hosts, the match ended 0-0. In the second in Giuseppe Meazza, Milan took the lead with a goal by the Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko in the 45'+1 and Obafemi Martins retaliated for the Nerazzurri in the 84'. Milan qualified for the final with the away goals rule that was in force at the time.

Let's remember some of the top names of the two teams of that time: Pirlo, Rui Costa, Nesta, Maldini, Costacurta, Shevchenko, Seedorf , Gattuso, Filippo Inzaghi for the red devils. And Crespo, Recoba, Toldo, Zanetti, Cannavaro, Conceição.

2 decades later...

And two decades later, history repeats itself again! The two Milan teams (they ruled out Napoli and Benfica) now seem determined to breathe new life into Italian football, which for years had fallen into periods of harsh disrepute.

It is also indicative that from that semi-final onwards we had never seen two Italian teams in the top four of the institution. However, the weather is changing, as are the dynamics of the gladiators.

And given that Inter and Milan will meet in the semi-finals, then it is a fact that the Italians will be represented in the UEFA Champions League final for the first time after 2017 and the "battle" between Juventus and Real.

Manos Staramopoulos

Journalist and Analyst of International Football and Affairs

Chief Editor English Zone of Discoveryfootball.com

Athens (Greece)

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Takis Pantelis: “Paris, Real and Arsenal among the favorites. The Champions League needs character”

Por Manos Staramopoulos • 7 de marzo de 2026

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