Milan’s glory day return: Following AC Milan, Internazionale also managed to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday evening. A good thing for football, says La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Euphoria in Italy: “Milan has reconquered Europe”
“AC Milan and Inter among the big four in Europe is good news,” writes the Italian newspaper. “Also for non-Italians. In the turbulent transformation it is going through, football – to remain the popular novel it has always been – must add new protagonists. But it cannot afford to lose those who have written memorable chapters for a long time. Milan has reconquered Europe.”
In 2005, the city mates also faced each other on the Champions League stage. Then in the quarterfinals. Two years earlier, the teams met in the semifinals. “We are extremely happy, because Inter had not reached the semi-finals for several years,” said Federico Dimarco at Sky Sport, who delivered two assists on Wednesday. “You hardly ever get this chance. We can make history.”
Rumors circulated ahead of the return against Benfica that Simone Inzaghi’s job would be at stake. Inter’s trainer would have flown out if things had gone wrong. “I know where those noises are coming from,” Inzaghi told Amazon Prime Video Italia. “I’ve been around football for years and I’m used to it. I want to make the fans happy.”
Last season Inter and AC Milan battled to the last gasp for the title in Serie A, with Il Rossoneri ultimately winning. “During my years at Inter, the derby has always been one of my favorite games because of the tension, but of course also because we want to take revenge for our history and for last year,” owner Steven Zhang commented on Sky Sport. “Every season we strive to get everything in every competition. Obviously the Champions League is the most difficult, especially now for the Italian clubs, but we certainly dreamed of it.”
Schmidt lashes out at VAR: “They’re abolishing it for my part”
However, Roger Schmidt was once again not pleased with the arbitration after Benfica’s elimination in the Champions League against Internazionale.
“It was already done in Lisbon,” said the Portuguese trainer at Eleven about last week’s 0-2. According to Schmidt, VAR Pol van Boekel was also responsible for the result: “The decisions of the arbitration also influenced this round. There was a penalty not given, just like last week. We were a bit unlucky with that.”
At the press conference, Schmidt was even more fierce in Milan. He said, “For my part, they are doing away with VAR in football. It’s no use like that.”
After the goal-rich draw in the Giuseppe Meazza, Schmidt could not blame his own team. “We’ve had a great campaign, 14 games with only one defeat, unfortunately in a very important game last week. In that game we didn’t play with the same intensity, if we played like today we would have had a different result, but that’s football. I liked what I saw here,” he added.
Schmidt concluded, “The team believed in it, fought, never gave up, even when we went 3-1. It was important to play right. We have to accept this, congratulations to Inter. We have to use this performance to help us in the last six games of the league.”
