Champions League: First blood to Inter as Milan capitulate

This may have been AC Milan's home leg but after just 11 minutes a stunned San Siro echoed only to the distant sound of the fans in blue and black in the upper deck of the Curva Sud. In the blink of an eye, the Nerazzurri were already halfway to Istanbul.

Hands on hips, stares of disbelief, fingers pointing to empty spaces; Milan's defense didn't know what had hit them. A quickfire double, first from the seemingly evergreen talent that is Edin Dzeko, 37, and the influential Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 34, had put them in a daze. Milan's dream was unravelling.

Inter's Chinese billionaire owner Steven Zhang has made some significant player investments since becoming the club's youngest ever chairman at 26 in 2018, but it was the eldest and third-eldest players on the field — signed for a combined fee of €2.8million — that may have just sent them into a first Champions League final under Zhang's watch.

Milan vs Inter: A romantic encounter

Inter's relationship with this competition isn't as storied as their neighbors across the hall and they had failed to beat Milan on the three occasions they'd met in the Champions League, across two legs in 2003 and again in 2005. As some of the Milan legends of that era watched on from the soft seats — Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf and Andriy Shevchenko among them — it's clear that while Milan are on the path to better things, they remain a long way off those previous highs.

Italian football in general has struggled in the past couple of decades, with only fleeting big success stories such as Inter Milan's Champions League title in 2010 under Jose Mourinho to offer the hope of better times ahead. Even Juventus couldn't get over the line, losing two finals in 2015 and 2017 under Massimiliano Allegri.

So the spectacle of an all-Italian semifinal stirs up memories of the 90s, a decade when all but two European Cup finals featured an Italian side. For AC Milan, who have reached the final 11 times and won it seven, their failure to reach the final since 2007, when they won it under Carlo Ancelotti, doesn't sit comfortably.

And while this edition of their rivals Inter Milan isn't exactly embroidered with star names to the extent of the past either, players such as Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella — both impressive on Wednesday night — are carrying the club into a new era and evoking memories of the past. Even Inter's sponsor-less shirts are old school. 

Dzeko and Mkhitaryan roll back the years

Under coach Simone Inzaghi, Inter are a relaxed version of the team that won the Serie A title under Antonio Conte in 2021. They still play in the 3-5-2 formation that brought Conte success but with their hair down and a greater freedom to pour forward. While Inzaghi is yet to replicate Conte's Scudetto glory, his team ended last season as Italy's top scorers with 84 goals and has developed them into something of a specialist Cup team, guiding them to the Coppa Italia last season.

Inter wasted little time here. Eight minutes in, Milan captain Davide Calabria was caught failing to defend a corner properly and Dzeko expertly hooked a volley beyond the stranded Mike Maignan in the Milan goal. Even at 37, ex-Wolfsburg striker Dzeko appears as hungry and dangerous as ever, keeping record signing Romelu Lukaku on the bench and motivated by the prospect of facing his former club Manchester City in the final.

Maignan barely had time to dust himself down from the opener before he was picking the ball out of his net for the second time in the first 11 minutes. Another former Bundesliga player found the net, this time in the shape of Henrik Mkhitaryan, who profited from Lautaro Martinez's clever dummy and finished tidily. Milan were shellshocked and never recovered from the early double blow, notwithstanding Tonali's second half strike against the post.

The only surprise about an all-Italian semifinal in the Champions League is that Napoli, arguably Europe's best team this season and unarguably Italy's best, are not part of it. A surprise quarterfinal defeat by Milan put paid to their European dream, but Milan's own dream appears to be fading. The Nerazzurri, not the Rossoneri, are rolling back the years and it's now theirs to lose.