CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Inter’s road to the 2023 Champions League final: Porto, Benfica, AC Milan
The Serie A side head to the Istanbul final as underdogs but Simone Inzaghi is confident his men can spring a surprise against Man City.
Inter Milan will be looking to derail Manchester City’s bid to secure a historic treble (FA Cup, Premier League and Euro glory) as they face off in the 2022/23 Champions League final at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on 10 June.
Despite going into Saturday’s game as underdogs, the ‘nerazzurri’ will take confidence from their previous final appearance where they were tipped by many to succumb to Bayern Munich when they met in the 2010 final in Madrid as two goals from Diego Militao saw the Milanese giants secure their third European Cup/UCL win.
Inter’s path to Istanbul
Following the group stage draw held in Istanbul last August, the Serie A side were pitted in a tough Group C that also included Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona and Viktoria Plzen.
Bayern romped home as group winners with six wins from six and Inter pipped Barça to second spot condemning the Catalan side to the Europa League with a 1-0 win over Xavi’s side at San Siro key in the group’s outcome after a 3-3 draw at Camp Nou.
Portuguese double
Inter faced Portuguese big guns (Porto and Benfica) in both the Round of 16 and in the quarterfinals and after struggling to advance against FC Porto, edging through on a narrow 1-0 aggregate win, things were less complicated against Benfica where a 0-2 win in Lisbon gave Inzaghi’s side a huge advantage ahead of the second leg which ended 3-3.
Milan derby
A meeting with city rivals Milan set up a Derby della Madonnina semi-final, where once again a solid first leg performance and scoreline tipped the tie in favour of the ‘nerazzurri’ who advanced 3-0 on aggregate.