Milan is not any stranger to drama, or to huge nights within the Champions League for that matter. But video games like Tuesday’s semifinal second leg — Internazionale vs. AC Milan at San Siro — make it laborious to be a impartial. So in case you are, select a aspect and settle in for one more night time of noise and recollections of Italian soccer’s good outdated days. Here’s what it is best to know.
How to Watch
Inter vs. AC Milan is being broadcast by CBS (English) and Univision (Spanish), and streamed on Paramount Plus. Watching someplace else? A full record of UEFA broadcast companions is right here. Kickoff is at 3 pm Eastern, it doesn’t matter what the advertisements and the TV listings and the tweets inform you.
Check again right here for updates throughout the match.
Inter-Milan Preview: Pressure Point
Like a bunch of naughty schoolchildren, AC Milan’s gamers stood with their heads bowed and their gazes mounted as they took in what the membership’s ultras — its most ardent, most organized followers — needed to say. Standing amongst them, a case examine in energetic listening, their supervisor Stefano Pioli nodded his head in settlement and understanding.
The ultras, Pioli revealed later, had merely needed to “spur and stimulate” the crew after a bitterly dispiriting week. Milan had misplaced twice within the area of 4 days: first, most damaging, to metropolis rival Inter within the first leg of their Champions League semifinal; after which, salt within the wound, to 18th-place Spezia in Serie A.
Pioli must be taken at his phrase, however from the surface it didn’t have the air of an particularly inspiring encounter. Milan’s gamers seemed stricken, somber, once they had been summoned over to satisfy the followers after that sport in opposition to Spezia. They didn’t give the impression that they appreciated being reminded of their duties.
They are below strain sufficient forward of the second leg, in spite of everything. First and foremost, after all, there’s a place within the Champions League closing at stake. Local pleasure is on the road, too: The specter of being eradicated by its housemate is a harrowing one. And then, due to that defeat at Spezia — which left Milan fifth in Serie A — there’s the prospect of this being the membership’s final look within the Champions League for at the very least a yr.
The distinction with the temper at Inter is stark. Simone Inzaghi’s Inter aspect has spent a lot of the season sputtering and stuttering however seems to have discovered its rhythm on the final minute. Inter has misplaced solely as soon as because the starting of April, and it has gained its final seven video games in a row, a streak that included victories over Juventus, Lazio, Roma and Milan.
At San Siro final week — a sport that was technically Milan’s dwelling leg — Inter seized management early and by no means seemed like relinquishing it, limiting Milan to solely sporadic menace after two early objectives had secured what seemed like an unassailable benefit. Inter has the extra skilled, the extra grizzled crew; for the return, it’ll additionally have the ability to name on 70,000 or so followers.
No matter how stimulating Milan discovered that chat with its ultras, it’s laborious to keep away from the suspicion that speak — in the end — won’t be sufficient.
The First Leg in Review
To be truthful, you solely want to observe the primary 30 seconds to see each of the objectives which have Inter within the driver’s seat. But the actually enjoyable half is the club-produced commentary.
Inter, naturally, cherished it:
Extended highlights (with English commentary) is right here.
What’s Next?
The Inter-Milan winner qualifies for the Champions League closing, which can be June 10 in Istanbul. Each crew can be comfortable to be again after what has been (for them) an interminable absence.
Inter final appeared within the closing in 2010, when a José Mourinho-coached crew beat Bayern Munich, 2-0, on the Bernabéu in Madrid. Milan final performed within the closing in 2007; it gained its seventh, and most up-to-date, title that night time, 2-1 in opposition to Liverpool.