Milan V Internazionale: Champions League Semi-Final, First Leg

13 min: Saelemaekers, in for the injured Leao, wins Milan’s first corner of the game, down the left. Tonali to take.

12 min: A shame for Inter that away goals don’t count these days, huh.

This is sensational! Some space for Barella down the left. He fires a low cross towards Martinez, who dummies on the edge of the D and allows Mkhitaryan to come in behind him, take a touch down the middle and into the Milan box, and slam a shot across Maignan and into the left-hand side of the net!

10 min: Dzeko did so well to get to the ball ahead of Calabria. The Milan captain was rooted to the spot as the Inter striker powered around him from behind to whistle that volley home.

This is such a sweet strike. The corner’s swung in from the left by Dimarco. Dzeko meets the dropping ball, eight yards out, and blisters a sidefooted volley into the top right! Easy as that.

7 min: Dimarco’s delivery is knocked on by Acerbi and pings off Tonali for the first corner of the evening. It’ll come in from the left.

6 min: Dzeko knocks the ball past Tomori down the Inter left and is brought down for his trouble. A free kick and a chance to load the Milan box.

4 min: It’s all a bit scrappy. Kjaer blooters forward in the 1980s English style. Onana gathers. On BT Sport, pundit Rio Ferdinand claims he’s never experienced an atmosphere like this. His awe is genuine and palpable.

2 min: The noise at San Siro is absolutely deafening. That unique Italian sound. Sweet music.

24 sec: Hernandez comes in late on Dumfries. A high-intensity start. A bit later in the game and that could have been a yellow.

Internazionale get the ball rolling. This time next week, we’ll know which one of these teams has become the first Italian finalist since Juventus in 2017. Quite a way to go yet.

The teams are out! We’ve already established what they’re wearing. You won’t need telling what the atmosphere is like at San Siro. Let’s just pay indirect homage to Zadok the Priest and take it from there. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.

Pre-match postbag. “If you had told me in November that an Italian club would make the Champions League final, I would have thought, ‘Well done Napoli!’ That’ll teach me” – Joe Pearson

“Henrikh Mkhitaryan lives in my head as the scorer of soccer’s first ‘scorpian kick’ goal, although no doubt there were others before his. It’d certainly be a nice sting in the tail if the former United man was to thwart City in the CL final. Because we all know that United aren’t going to deny Pep’s lot their treble on current form” – Justin Kavanagh

“The lineups from tonight rather take me back to the heady days when Scottish clubs were regularly at the business end of European competitions, and one often had to acknowledge the fact that the players on the other side had better names than we did. This thought has undeniably been prompted by Alex Reid’s Forty Years On article today but when you consider the cadence of Leighton, Cooper, McLeish, Miller and Rougvie – as opposed to Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni and Dumfries – you realise there’s only one of them would have made the Aberdeen team” – Scott Blair

How the teams got here. Inter came second behind Bayern Munich in the groups, knocking out Barcelona as a result, while Milan were runners-up to Chelsea. In the first knockout round, Milan saw off Spurs while Inter did for Porto, and then in the quarters, this happened …

The big Guardian semi-final pennant face-off. The Rossoneri – it would make no sense otherwise – play in red and black stripes. Their pennant is however predominantly white. A nod to the fact that six of their seven European Cups were won wearing their second-choice white gear? Maybe! Or perhaps not.

By way of contrast, the Nerazzurri do as the Nerazzurri are. Black and blue all over. It’s also possible to ascertain who they’re playing without squinting extremely painfully. An early blow landed by Inter.

A big blow for Milan: Rafael Leao failed a fitness test this morning and misses out altogether. Leao picked up a muscle problem against Lazio last weekend. The Rossoneri can however call on Olivier Giroud, who won this competition with Chelsea in 2021, and substitute Divock Origi, who settled the 2019 final in Liverpool’s favour.

Inter drop another erstwhile Premier League favourite, Romelu Lukaku, to the bench. Lautaro Martinez returns to their starting line-up. Defensive doubts Danilo D’Ambrosio and Robin Gosens have been passed fit, but are only named as subs.

Milan: Maignan, Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez, Krunic, Tonali, Bennacer, Saelemaekers, Giroud, Diaz.
Subs: Mirante, Nava, Ballo, Rebic, Kalulu, Origi, Thiaw, Messias, Pobega, Gabbia, De Ketelaere.

Internazionale: Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Martinez, Dzeko.
Subs: Handanovic, Cordaz, Gagliardini, De Vrij, Gosens, Correa, Bellanova, Asllani, D’Ambrosio, Zanotti, Brozovic, Lukaku.

Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain)

Milan and Internazionale have met in the semi-finals of the Champions League before, and it was tight. Back in 2003, Milan advanced to the final after 0-0 and 1-1 draws, Andriy Shevchenko’s second-leg away goal the difference, albeit on something of a technicality, given both teams play at the same stadium. The clubs met again two years later, this time in the quarters, when administration again reared its ugly head, Milan winning the first leg 2-0 before being awarded the second 3-0, the match abandoned after goalkeeper Dida was hit upside the head by an Inter supporter’s flare.

Eighteen years later, the Milanese meet for the third time in Europe’s greatest competition … and once again, it’s likely to be tight and fiercely contested. Milan are the reigning/outgoing champions of Italy; Inter are ahead of Milan in this year’s Serie A table. Milan won their home fixture against Inter 3-2, thanks to goals from Rafael Leao (2) and Olivier Giroud; Inter won the reverse 1-0 as a result of Lautaro Martinez’s strike. Inter also won last season’s two-legged Coppa Italia semi-final 3-0 on aggregate, so while Milan have the best of it historically in the Champions League, Inter nick the more recent form domestically.

Good luck calling this, then. What we can say for sure, though, is that the Rossoneri and the Nerazzurri are both genuine European royalty, continental champions seven and three times respectively. Both clubs sparkle with that old-school stardust from the early golden era of the European Cup, Gianni Rivera and Jose Altafini, Sandro Mazzola and Giacinto Facchetti, Nereo Rocco and Helenio Herrera, all that. Both clubs are on the up again. Kick off at San Siro is at 8pm BST, 9pm local. It’s on!