MILAN: First came a return to the top of Italian football, now comes a chance to reach the Cham­pions League final.

The Milan teams are back.

But only one will get the opportunity to compete for European football’s top prize as Milan gears up for its biggest local derby in a generation.

Two clashes full of colour, noise and drama await in one of the continent’s football capitals, AC Milan and Inter Milan battling at the San Siro for the chance to take the Italian city’s European trophy tally to 22.

Milan and Inter are no longer true giants like the other semi-final’s contenders Real Madrid and Manchester City but Wednesday’s first leg and the return the following Tuesday will be unbeatable for atmosphere and played in one of football’s most evocative arenas.

“It’s not a derby, it’s the derby,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi told reporters on Tuesday. “We know what it means for us, the club, our fans and myself. But I’m feeling calm beca­use I’ve seen that the boys are very concentrated.

“Every match is its own story, there will be times when we will be more offensive and times when we will more defensive. Just as we did in the last 16 and quarters we will have to play all together and make sacrifices.”

Three-time European champions Inter were the last Italian club to lift the trophy, when they won an unprecedented treble of the Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League under Jose Mourinho in 2010. Milan won the last of their seven titles in 2007.

Since the Milan teams’ last triumphs in Europe there have been slumps on the field and turmoil off it, with both clubs changing ownership several times and coaches even more frequently.

Inter and Milan have faced each other on two occasions in the knockout stages, with Milan emerging victorious in both previous ties — played in 2003 and 2005.

However, Inter have been more successful in recent meetings, winning three and drawing two of the seven derbies the teams have played since Inzaghi took over as Inter manager in 2021. Those wins have included 3-0 victories in the Italian Supercup final earlier this year and last year’s Coppa Italia semi-finals.

“We have played many times, I said it before. Seven. We have won, lost, made semi-finals, finals,” Inzaghi said. “We will have to be very good at using our heads when we need to, because there are always unexpected events in such important matches: in the last ones, we have always been good at being lucid.”

Both team’s seasons hinge of the result of the all-Italian tie, with qualification for next year’s competition far from certain thanks to disappointing league campaigns which left last season’s main Serie A title challengers miles behind newly-crowned champions Napoli.

Inter, though, come into the match in blistering form and with a previously misfiring attack suddenly banging in the goals left and right.

Inzaghi’s side have won five on the bounce, scoring 14 times in that run, ten of which have been netted by the forwards, with Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Mart­inez both in a hot streak.

Milan, who were dethr­oned as Serie A champions last week by Napoli, have had a rough run in the league with only three wins in their last 10 games to slip to fifth — two points behind fourth-placed Inter.

They are sweating on the fitness of Rafael Leao, who in recent weeks has shown just how important he is to Stefano Pioli’s attack but picked up a thigh injury in the weekend’s win over Lazio.

Of the eight matches this season which Leao has eith­er missed through inj­ury or not started, Milan have won only one. The Por­t­ugal winger has star­ted every single one of Mil­an’s 10 continental matches and was crucial to their getting past Napoli in the last eight.

Manager Stefano Pioli said on Tuesday that Milan will make a late call on Leao’s participation, adding that Belgian winger Alexis Saelemaekers was a potential replacement.

“Today he [Leao] trai­ned, tomorrow I will decide what to do,” Pioli told reporters, adding that he was not stressing over the 23-year-old’s fitness. “I’m going to bed quietly toni­g­ht, anyway in the morning Rafa and the doctor will tell me his condition. If he is well he will be called up, otherwise not.

“If the test is clean he can play. If it is not clean he cannot play — either from the start or the end. I would have preferred to do it tod­ay, but it was not possible.”

Inter’s last meeting with Milan in the Champions League semi-finals came 20 years ago in the 2002-03 season, when Milan beat them enroute to a sixth European title.

Midfielder Federico Dim­­a­rco, a childhood Inter fan, said he was at the San Siro for that tie but insisted revenge was not on his mind.

“It’s been a long time and we think about the present, about tomorrow, about trying to get a positive result and that’s it,” the 25-year-old told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t have great memories [of the tie], as an Inter fan. But to think that 20 years ago I was there to see it and today I have the chance to play it is an incredible emotion. We know the importance of match and of the derby, we’ll give it a good go.”

Milan’s Olivier Giroud won the competition with Chelsea in 2021 and is eyeing another triumph after winning the Serie A title last season.

“This club is special,” the veteran France striker said on Tuesday. “Last year I couldn’t hope for better than to win the Scudetto first year and in the second year still be in the race for the top four and in a semi-final of the Champions League. We are focused on Inter and we just want to dream.”

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2023