Milan and Manchester also compete for the "Champions League of amateurs"

Milan and Manchester also compete for the "Champions League of amateurs"

The final four of the second edition of the Fenix ​​Trophy begin today. Bk Skjold (Denmark) and United of Manchester and Brera Calcio and Prague Raptors Football Club (Czech Republic) will face off on the pitch

Milan and Manchester are united by football and beyond. Inter Milan and Manchester City will face each other in the Champions League final on Saturday evening in Istanbul: Milan is the only city to have won the cup with two different teams, Manchester will try to catch up. London and Madrid have not yet succeeded. This year's Manchester City second shirt, red and black, is a declared tribute to the colors of Milan, and the other night, during the match against Verona, some Milan fans had the nice idea of ​​wearing it at San Siro. There are no official precedents between Inter and Manchester City, but only two friendlies, in July 2010 and 2011, the first ended 3-0 for the Nerazzurri with a crazy right-footed goal from outside the area by a young Cristiano Biraghi and the second with the score reversed for the British. Inter have played four times against Manchester United and have never beaten them, while the most frequent meeting between the two cities is Milan-Manchester United: it has happened 12 times, including the "perfect match" on 2 May 2007 of Carlo Ancelotti's Milan in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final then won against Liverpool in Athens.

Another invisible thread is bad weather. Milan and Manchester City met in official matches only in the round of 16 of the 1978-1979 UEFA Cup. The first leg at San Siro, initially scheduled for Wednesday 22 November 1978, was postponed to 1.30pm the following day due to fog and finished 2-2. In the second leg, played on 6 December in England, the home team prevailed 3-0, but the match sadly went down in Milan's history because Nereo Rocco, present in the freezing Maine Road stands already in less than perfect health, he accused the illness that in a few months would have led to his death.

Two days before the Champions League final, there could be another Milan-Manchester final this week with another international football trophy up for grabs. In fact, the final four of the Fenix ​​Trophy 2023, the second edition of the "Champions League for amateurs" will take place in Milan on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 June, a tournament approved by UEFA and promoted and organized by Brera FC – “Milan's third team” – to showcase the best practices of non-professional football. The participating teams are their own Brera Calcio, BK Skjold (Denmark), Prague Raptors Football Club (Czech Republic) and United of Manchester (England).

The semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday from 6 pm at the Gianni Brera Civic Arena. In the first match, BK Skjold and United of Manchester will face off, while Brera Calcio will play against Prague Raptors Football Club from 8.30pm. Tickets can be purchased online on the Eventbrite website or directly at the cash desk. The races will also be broadcast live on the Fenix ​​Trophy TV YouTube channel and on Twitch on the Bepi TV channel. For the finals, however, the appointment is for Thursday in the evocative setting of San Siro: third-fourth place from 11.15, followed by the final for the title. Brera Calcio and United of Manchester have already met during last year's Fenix ​​Trophy: 3-1 for the English in Milan (with 400 fans coming from Manchester to the Arena on a Wednesday evening) and 2-1 for new to United of Manchester at home.



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