Champions League: Season on the line for Inter and AC Milan in semi-final showdown - 'It will be revenge'

As Inter saw out a 5-3 aggregate win over Benfica to set up a mouth-watering Milan Derby Champions League semi-final, social media was flooded with one of Italian football’s most iconic images. Marco Materazzi stands leaning on the shoulder of Manuel Rui Costa. One player dressed in the black and blue of Inter, the other in the red and black of AC Milan.

They stare towards a wall of red smoke. Ad It’s a picture that captures the imagination, as these two fiercest of rivals pause in a moment of cooperative calm amid the chaos. Premier LeagueIf Man Utd players cared they’d use this fallout as motivation – The Warm-Up09/08/2022 AT 06:58 The reality was less romantic, though.

This ‘Derby della Madonnina’, in the Champions League quarter-finals, was abandoned after flares were thrown on the pitch by Inter fans, one striking Milan keeper Dida, and the Rossoneri were eventually awarded a 3-0 win. Eighteen years have passed since then, and everybody will hope that those ugly scenes of violence remain a thing of the past. Nevertheless, the picture has become a part of the legend of this fixture, and also serves as a timewarp to an era when Serie A dominated in Europe.