Champions League S-final: Fearless Inter Humble Milan 2-0

• As Dzeko, Mkhitaryan punish Milan’s slow start

After 90 minutes of exhilarating display on Wednesday night, Inter (Internazionale) Milan have emerged as clear favourites to appear in this season’s UEFA Champions League final to be hosted by Turkey.

One can easily admit that Simone Inzaghi’s flawed but fearless Inter were brilliant on the day, more experienced, more physical, more disciplined and more focused.

Taking the early lead with a startling opening burst from Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, they held off their bitter rivals, AC Milan through gritted teeth and in the most hostile of environments.

Even on home turf, this was an away game for Inter, and as fires raged around them, they produced a performance to stand alongside any of their great European nights.

They knew that Milan – even without the injured Rafael Leão – could kill them down the flanks. And so their back five put Milan’s wingers in a lethal pincer, squeezing their space, forcing them to play through the centre where they were shorter in numbers and shorter in class.

For Milan, Sandro Tonali ran and ran until his studs were blunt, trying to plug the gaps that were opening like quicksand. But Inter were epidemic in that first half-hour – “extraordinary”, as Inzaghi later put it – and could quite easily have finished the tie off there and then.

For Milan, the only consolation for now is having the semi-final second leg to salvage and make amends in keeping hope alive. As a club steeped in the heritage of its seven European Cups, Milan will be backing themselves to upset the odds come Tuesday, May 16, 2023 return leg action.

However, like the pundits would say; there comes a time when tradition and institutional memory run up against the hard-edged necessities of, you know, being able to clear the ball from your own penalty area.

Perhaps, on this night, Milan were simply disoriented by the size of the occasion, rattled by the noise, and blown out of their comfort zone.

The 2023 UEFA Champions League final will be the 68th season of Europe’s premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 31st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs’ Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

The match is scheduled to hold inside the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on 10 June 2023 – With The Guardian report