AC Milan v Inter

[JawD 31]

So, I've wanted to go to this derby for years and finally got around to it this weekend. It was organised through I lad I know who is the UK Agent for AC Milan /AC Milan Glory (their charity team).

 

I also wanted to compare this derby to ours. the difficulty of course is that I couldnt feel emotion to this one whereas to ours I naturally do. This puts this derby at a disadvantage right away.

 

It was going top be a big one this year because of the league. AC 2 points head in first and Inter in second. Both played 30 games out of 38. Inter still have to play Napoli though who are in 3rd.

 

On the way to the ground the main thing I noticed was that they have loads of stalls selling scarfs, flags and tops (snides). Also burger vans that sell real food (not the tasteless junk we call burgers), the vans also sell bottles of beer. At the stadium its the same with these stalls just inside the first parimeter. The atmosphere at this point was about the same as ours when we play. Pockets of fans singing various chants on the way to the ground.

 

Getting into the game there is more checks. Your ticket has your name printed and you have to show this with ID. After this you then have a turnstile that scans the ticket. We done that and went to the seats. We were in 45 mins before kick off and at this point the atmosphere was bigger for that part of the game. A couple of flares going off, chants, and loads of flags etc. Players names were announced and again this was met with more noise than when we do.

 

The game started and what was initially a bigger atmosphere again made up of chants, flags, flares, bangers, and much better PA system. Loads of banners that were uncovered one at a time. Our Italian guy who was with us explained what they were and from both sides were taking the piss out of their president but then on AC side they were calling Leonardo (now inter coach was AC coach). there was huge banner of the last supper that had been shown with Leonardo taking the place of Judas etc.

 

The ice cream sellers there that walk among the crowd also sell beer and sambuka.

 

All in all, it was a good game (AC won 3-0), but I'd say the noise from the crowd during the game was on a similar level to when we play sunderland, there was also AC fans leaving with 10mins to go (mind getting away from the San Siro is mental after a game, all the bikes and cars tooting their horns etc with flags waving and such). But its everything else that goes with it that increases the atmosphere in the ground.

 

Went on the piss after the game but the next day we had a meal arranged with Franco Baresi. Met him before and he's a good down to earth bloke. Some of the questions/answers I can remember are :

 

- Best player he played against was Maradonna

- Best English player he played against was Shearer

- If he had the chance to play for a UK team it would have been Man Utd

- He thinks a foreign manager playing for a big team (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil etc) is wrong but ok for smaller countries

- He would like to manage AC Milan one day

- He would like to play in todays game - because the money is much more!

 

I've got a loads of pictures from the Derby and the meal etc as well as a short video (I caught the first goal as well) so Ill stick them up when I get them sorted.

[McFaul 35]

Good review. What did Baresi say about the toon? There's only one game abroad I've got my heart set on going to like, and that's River v Boca, might get there one day.

[JawD 31]

Good review. What did Baresi say about the toon? There's only one game abroad I've got my heart set on going to like, and that's River v Boca, might get there one day.

 

Tell you waht he did say that will make you laugh. He doesnt speak English so we talk through his friend called Danielle (good bloke) and he knows his football well also. I took 6 people with me and the lad who organised it took 3 plus himself. Franco asked who everyone supported. Our group was 1 x Man City, 1 x Leeds, 2 x NUFC, 1 x Mackem, 1 x Liverpool and 1 x Everton. The other lads were 1 x NUFC and 3 x Mackems. When I said Newcastle, Baresi was gesticulating about noise and Danielle said good fans and make a lot of noise for team. When it came to Sunderland he just had a blank expression and didnt really know who they were.

 

Another thing I remembered, he said Capello shouldnt manage England and that Harry will be next England manager. Quite rates current Spurs side.

[McFaul 35]

Tell you waht he did say that will make you laugh. He doesnt speak English so we talk through his friend called Danielle (good bloke) and he knows his football well also. I took 6 people with me and the lad who organised it took 3 plus himself. Franco asked who everyone supported. Our group was 1 x Man City, 1 x Leeds, 2 x NUFC, 1 x Mackem, 1 x Liverpool and 1 x Everton. The other lads were 1 x NUFC and 3 x Mackems. When I said Newcastle, Baresi was gesticulating about noise and Danielle said good fans and make a lot of noise for team. When it came to Sunderland he just had a blank expression and didnt really know who they were.

Another thing I remembered, he said Capello shouldnt manage England and that Harry will be next England manager. Quite rates current Spurs side.

[MattM4 0]

- Best English player he played against was Shearer

When did that ever happen?

[Tom 13819]

He retired from Italy in 1994 and Milan in 1997 so fuck knows!

[JawD 31]

He retired from Italy in 1994 and Milan in 1997 so fuck knows!

 

No idea! Though Franco still plays now but I doubt he could have meant a charity game!

[ohhh_yeah 2763]

.

 

 

 

good read. look forward to the photos.

[JawD 31]

I've just stuck the images up on my photoblog. If you're interested you can see them *HERE*

[Holden McGroin 4821]

On a slight side topic, I was on a tour last week in the US and I was sitting up front next to the guide who was Hawaiian.

 

Anyway, he asked:

 

Him: "What football team do you support"

Me: "Soccer?" (he must get corrected on this all the time so used the right term)

Him: "Yeah"

Me: "Newcastle"

Him: "Me too. I watch all the games. Have you seen Goal?"

Me: "Yeah"

Him: "Great movie"

etc etc etc

 

The Toon are bigger than people think. I saw loads young lads in Indonesia back in 2002 running around. I doubt it will be the same these days though.

[Holden McGroin 4821]

I'm a bit gutted I never went to the Inter v Toon game at the San Siro. Cant remember why I couldn't make it. I did get to the Juventus game in Italy but the ground wasnt full and we got beat

[Kid Dynamite 5890]

I managed to get to the Barca game instead. The outside of the ground looked lovely

[JawD 31]

I'm a bit gutted I never went to the Inter v Toon game at the San Siro. Cant remember why I couldn't make it. I did get to the Juventus game in Italy but the ground wasnt full and we got beat

 

That was the first time Id been to Milan when we played Inter. The best away day Ive been to bar none. Not just for the game, but the whole few days of the event. The beer, the clubs, the hangovers, the sneaking bottles of beer from subways on the day of the game (due to drinking ban), the AC fans supporting us and our end of the stadium going mental. Brilliant.

[JawD 31]

and here is the end of the pre-match build up, start of the game and first goal (lasts 10mins, I was lucky to catch 1st goal as they score in 1st min)

 

[PaddockLad 14529]

I'm a bit gutted I never went to the Inter v Toon game at the San Siro. Cant remember why I couldn't make it. I did get to the Juventus game in Italy but the ground wasnt full and we got beat

 

That was the first time Id been to Milan when we played Inter. The best away day Ive been to bar none. Not just for the game, but the whole few days of the event. The beer, the clubs, the hangovers, the sneaking bottles of beer from subways on the day of the game (due to drinking ban), the AC fans supporting us and our end of the stadium going mental. Brilliant.

 

Couldnt agree more. When Inter scored it was like a bomb going off. Never heard a noise like it, or since....until 31-10-10

 

Whats with the "Uncle Sam" banner in your photos?...are the Inter Ultra's fans of 19th century Americana?

[JawD 31]

No idea why they use that image. The whole thing I think is a piss take against AC saying in 112 years they couldn't do it. But Ive no idea what "it" is.

[Guest alex]

No idea why they use that image. The whole thing I think is a piss take against AC saying in 112 years they couldn't do it. But Ive no idea what "it" is.

Is it not a reference to the treble Inter achieved last year?

[McFaul 35]

and here is the end of the pre-match build up, start of the game and first goal (lasts 10mins, I was lucky to catch 1st goal as they score in 1st min)

 

Class video, I hate that cheesy Meeeeeeeeeeeeeelan Meeeeeeellllllaaaaaaaaannn oooooooooh sounds like a Eurovision song contest entry, been their song for 20 years.

[JawD 31]

No idea why they use that image. The whole thing I think is a piss take against AC saying in 112 years they couldn't do it. But Ive no idea what "it" is.

Is it not a reference to the treble Inter achieved last year?

 

Good shout

[JawD 31]

Not sure if anyone picked it up from the photo's, but there is one of the couple of lasses. I was trying all game to get a good angle and take their photo. There was 4 of them together, absolutely stunning

[ohhh_yeah 2763]

thanks for sharing. loved getting to see all of the build up to the start of the match.

 

 

[Tom 13819]

How did you go about getting the actual game tickets Jawd? I'm off in May for the Cagliari game and we are currently having a scramble for tickets!

[Tom 13819]

I also made the journey to Milan for their final home game against Cagliari!

 

We flew into Malpensa and as soon as we entered the hotel room we flicked on the TV to watch TV Calcio 24 who were covering the Scudetto festa , we noticed the Milan players were heading to the Duomo square to celebrate winning Serie A so we dropped our bags off and headed off on the metro to the square, making our way through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (shopping centre) we could see a crowd rushing towards the end of the mall amidst a sea of coloured smoke, red and black shirts and flags waving everywhere. We seemed to arrive pretty much as the team bus did!

 

 

 

The entire square was packed with people, drinking and singing, smoking dope and waving flags, people climbing up anything they can to see the team!

 

 

I could just see the team and make out a couple of players, Pato, Ibra, Pippo signing shirts and waving their own banner which I couldn't understand but apparently meant they 'won it fairly' as opposed to one of Inter's scudetto's which was awarded through the courts.

 

A Kevin Nolan look a like sets off a flare.

 

After the team had left and the crowds had cleared we made our way to the tube station to head to the ground, It was packed with fans constantly singing and jumping up and down, however every train that arrived was full to the brim and after 45minutes we decided that we would leave it and try the tram, however the trams weren't running as normal as the streets were too packed! No taxis were available in the centre so we began making our way across town, jogging to find a place we could catch a tram. However there wasn't one with any space so we had no choice but to run across the rest of town to catch kick off! After getting about half way we found a taxi driver doing nothing and asked him how much to San Siro to which he replied ''cinquanta'' to which we replied ''fuck off'' and started asking for directions on every street corner and After getting lost a couple of times and squeezing as much sense as we could out of italian directions we gradually began to see the roof of the San Siro creep over the streets and we knew we had made it, after having ran approximately 5 kilometres, we quicky picked up our tickets from the mpestero booth and headed inside the ground, we made our way to our seats and after that run I didn't fancy a beer so ended up grabbing an expensive coke.

 

 

We sat in the first tier of the blue sector so whilst the view of the pitch was great we missed the banners and flares of the Curva Sud, but their was plenty atmosphere, flags, singing and a camera flashes from every direction. The players made their way out and as they did a giant banner fell from the tier above saying ''campioni'' though we had to read it backwards and we missed the display entire stand was doing, holding up cards etc etc.

We were sat near the 10

 

The game was fairly relaxed and Milan cruised to a 3-0 lead after 30 minutes, two from Robinho and one from Gattuso till Cagliari replied through Cossu who skinned Zambrotta before slipping the ball into the net. Seedorf seemed to be the main man for Milan making everything happen, although Gattuso also played a very composed role dropping into the centre from the wing and swapping quite a bit, feeding, Pato, Seedorf and Robinho. Milan created an abundance of chances in the second half although poor finishing kept the score 3-1 till Seedorf slotted the fourth into the bottom right hand corner from some brilliant build up play. Cagliari attacked quite well and had a couple of decent chances however throughout the course of the game Milan handled everything comfortably and didn't really feel any pressure having already won the league at Roma. The second half seemed to be more geared towards the final whistle than seeing any football till Milan fans caught Inzaghi warming up on the sidelines.

 

Fans were going wild singing ''Pippo, Pippo, Pippo'' like we did Shearer and also a ''Oi Oi Oi, Oi Oi Oi Oi, Pippo Inzaghi, segna per noi!'' which basically means ''make a goal''. He was fairly gash but made one chance and every single time out of the two or three times he touched the ball the crowd went wild, if he scored the place would have exploded!

 

After the match the trophy presentation begun, they announced each player and they individually made there way to the podium, they lifted the trophy to utter chaos in the ground and then for some reason Kevin Prince Boateng (a massively popular player) for some reason dressed as Michael Jackson and did a full moonwalk on the podium!

 

After this and the usual champagne throwing the team did their lap of honour carrying a huge A.C Milan flag and the cup.

 

After a huge white sheet was laid onto the pitch the lights went off and images of the individual players were shown on the screen one by one to rapturous applause and flag waving whist massive lasers projected their squad numbers and the milan badge + scudetto and 18 all round the dark pitch. Then - possibly one of the most surreal moments of my life - their was a firework display for about half an hour, the crowd were going wild and it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen, truly unbelievable, half the time I was bad laughing at just how good they were!

 

Fireworks

 

We then made our way out of the ground, everybody was again singing and waving flags, past stands selling beer and burgers. Hundreds of mopeds were flying past flying huge red and black flags and beeping their horns. We made our way to the metro station which was closed so again we had to make our way all across town. Arriving at the hotel with some very sore feet five minutes before curfew.

 

The next day we did the tourist thing and got a massive pizza for like 7 Euros.

 

[Giraffidae 0]

excellent stuff, thanks.

[ChezGiven 0]

Sounds like a lush trip. I also love how that post ends Tom. 'Then we has a massive pizza and went home'