The similar stories of Pioli and Inzaghi before the big appointment in the Champions League

There Champions League offers us every year the best of football on a technical, tactical, emotional level, but its matches and its performance often also lead to the realm of the intangible, the inexplicable, in their story they push us to disturb presumed ethereal concepts such as the mystical of Real Madrid, the European DNA of Milan, the curse of PSG. To understand how we got there another derby in the semifinal between Milan and Inter it is perhaps trivial to talk about destiny, to hypothesize the existence of a divine hand (perhaps not what Sorrentino imagined, that’s it) who conspired to force the Rossoneri and Nerazzurri fans into another month of passion, hopes and turmoil. After all, we are facing two teams whose cup victory at the start of the season was quoted over fifty times the stakes by the main bookmakers and who now, thanks to an exciting course and a non-impossible scoreboard, have a chance to accomplish something historic.

The paths of Milan and Inter in the last two years have been intertwined and, in some respects, have been very similar: last season they fought for the scudetto until the last day, this year they were both not very consistent in the league but almost perfect in the Champions League, where they survived two annoying opponents like Tottenham and Porto with identical points (1-0 at home, 0-0 away) and then deservedly eliminated two of the revelations of this European campaign, Napoli and Benfica. Although similar in development, however, these paths are also very different, because the premises were different.

Stefano Pioli three and a half years ago he took on a young, demotivated Milan, with no habit or aptitude for victory and, after bringing them back to the Champions League, he transformed them into a winning group, capable of great feats such as the Scudetto won last season and the European semi-final just reached, enhancing in the meantime almost all the elements of the squad. Simone Inzaghi instead he arrived in the Italian champion team, but mentally and physically worn out by Conte’s two-year period, with several players at the end of the cycle, and despite winning three trophies (two Super Cups and an Italian Cup) he was unable to confirm that title, losing the race point to point against Milan in 2021/2022 and stumbling too many times to fall behind Napoli in this league.

In the analysis of the (too many) setbacks suffered by Milan and Inter in this Serie A, Pioli therefore enjoyed greater leniency than his colleague, not only for the credit of the incredible scudetto won last year, but above all for the feeling of having had, even in the worst moments, the team in hand. Milan, at least from the outside, continues to appear more united and in tune with their coach than Inter. The average age of the two teams (25.7 years for the Rossoneri, 28.4 for the Nerazzurri) and the greater economic solidity suggest a perhaps more rosy future for Milan, and it is very difficult to think that the Rossoneri will part ways with Pioli. regardless of how this season ends.

Inzaghi on the other hand, even with his future hanging in the balance and with less unconditional support from the owners, has once again shown that he is almost infallible in preparing for knockout matches, and his Inter’s style of play, a unlike that of Napoli, it seems more suitable for normalizing the strengths of Milan.

In a season in which Milan and Inter soon had to give up their ambition of winning the Scudetto for the second star, fate gave the two teams the opportunity to compete for an even greater dream, the Champions League final. After a long, exciting but also painful journey, Pioli and Inzaghi have come to cross each other again, in a final clash that will be able to decide their own future and, at the same time, that of their opponent. Istanbul is very close, we’ll see who will show up for the appointment with destiny.