At the beginning of the year, only a madman could have argued that two Italian teams would take part in the semi-finals of the Champions League, one of which would reach the final and win the Cup.

Especially when this couple consists of Milan With Intertwo giants of Milan with a long tradition of scary and terrible matches against each other in a journey of over 100 yearsThe story gets even more spicy!

The match itself is always intriguing, especially now when it judges something so important, in a year when nothing predicted such a development: Milan are 5th in Serie A with 53 points, up 22 less than the leader of Napoli, who was eliminated by a quarter. -final, and Inter are in 6th place with 51 points, 24 points behind the leader. If the Italian league ended now, no one would have qualified for the Champions League! Milan were supposed to compete in the Europa League, and Inter in the “modest” conference league, but now they have come to the point where they began to claim the most difficult trophy of the collective competition. There is no need for much explanation: this is football, this is its magic, this is also its absurd logic!

The meeting between Milan and Inter is traditionally one of the biggest derbies in the world of football, like Real Madrid – Barcelona, ​​Celtic – Rangers, Boca Junior – River Plate, our native Panathinaikos – Olympiacos or Red Star – Partizan, matches in which bodies fall and bonfires are lit, even if they do not decide anything important. The price of the weapon and the pride of the fans is enough to give them superlatives, whatever they lack in terms of criticality or rating interest, in the long run.

The Milan derby has its own special name: Derby della Madonnina! He took it in honor of the Virgin Mary, whose statue is located on top of the Duomo and is considered one of the most powerful symbols of the city. And it’s even more special, not only because they are two teams from the same city, but also because they have been sharing the same stadium for almost 100 years, Giuseppe Meazza, as it is called when Inter play at home. in honor of the great ace who wore the jerseys of both teams, but more of his own, or “San Siro” when Milan is at home, in honor of the patron saint of the city of Milan.

The history of this great derby is lost in the depths of (football) time and begins with a painful separation. These two teams were born out of a split 115 years ago due to an issue that still plagues football today: Legionnaires!

The club, called AC Milan, was founded in 1899 by Britons Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin as a cricket club which later developed into a football club. Everything went smoothly for almost 20 years, until a “civil war” broke out among the team members over whether legionnaires should be allowed to be used.

Those who supported “yes” they stayed and kept the Milan we know to this daya team with an extroverted and cosmopolitan character, although for many years it was considered the representative of the popular sections of the city, and its fans were called “kashavit”, i.e. “screwdrivers” or “trams”, i.e. those who went to the stadium by public transport.

Those who disagreed they left, and on March 9, 1908, the Swiss artist Giorgio Muggiani founded the Milan International.the “Inter” that we know now and which for many decades represented more of the Milanese bourgeoisie, that’s why its fans were called “bauscia”, i.e. economic prosperity.

These boundaries are now indistinguishable, as both clubs draw fans from the same fanbase, without a class character, with magnates at the helm, and not administrations elected by their members. Characteristically, when he took Milan right-wing (politically) “Cavalier” Silvio Berlusconiover the years, the flags with Che Guevara disappeared from the horseshoes of the fans, and the reformer of Inter was Massimo Morati, wealthy oil industrialistbut is well known for his leftist political beliefs.

As is always the case with any rivalry born of a “civil war”, the football clashes between Milan and Inter quickly took on a character far from the usual rivalry. The Derby della Madonnina has grown into an institution that has extended far beyond the city limits and has become a point of reference throughout the world of football, with fanatical fans of both teams across the land. It helped that both clubs grew to become football superpowers, pushing each other, with no one remaining in the opposition’s shadow except occasionally.

As for the differences they both count from 19 leagueswith the difference that Inter have never been relegated and Milan have never been relegated.. In Europe, however, Milan clearly have the upper hand, with the most honors ever won by an Italian team: 7 Champions Leagues, 5 European Super Cups, 2 European Cup Winners’ Cups and 4 Intercontinental Cups, for a total of 18 trophies. Inter have won exactly half, namely 3 Champions Leagues, 3 UEFA Cups, 2 Intercontinental Cups and the Club World Cup, 9 in total.

First Derby della Madonnina

The first Derby della Madonnina took place in October 1908, a few months after the split. From then until today they have been more than 300 official and friendly, many of them with great tension before, during and after their implementation. The most dramatic was the 2004/05 season in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, when Milan won 2-0 in the first leg and took a 1-0 lead in the second. Inter’s goal, which did not count to make it 1-1, resulted in countless objects and firecrackers being thrown by their supporters, causing the match to be temporarily stopped and then permanently after Milan goalkeeper Dida was injured. back. FIFA punished Inter with four matches behind closed doors and a €200,000 fine, the biggest fine it has ever imposed on a team.

Over the course of over 100 years, there have been many games that… slipped off the scoreboard and created a sensation like the Derby della Madonnina on May 11, 2001 when Milan won with an impressive 0-6 league score! The biggest difference is 8:1 in favor of Milan in 1918 and the most productive 6:4 in favor of Milan in 1969 in a tournament in New York and 3:7 in favor of Inter in a friendly match in 1920 or 3:6 for Inter in 1926 at the opening of the San Siro. More recent history also highlights Milan-Inter 5-0 in 1998 (Cup) and Milan-Inter 0-4 in 2009 (league).

There are many players who have played in both shirts in the Derby della Madonnina. There have been many camp changes over time, some of them creating a lot of tension, as happens in Greece every time an important Olympiakos or Panathinaikos player goes to the “perpetual rival”. Giuseppe Meazza, Roberto Baggio, Andrea Pirlo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, Christian Vieri, Mario Balotelli, Hernan Crespo, Clarence Seedorf, Antonio Cassano, Christian Panucci, Patrick Vieira are some of the front line players who have crossed the Rubicon and played in awe. opposition, always creating the relative intrigue of wearing… the wrong jersey in the eyes of the fans.