20, April 2023
Football: Milan and Inter preparing for fireworks with Champions League derby 0
The Milan derby will return to the centre stage of European football when the Italian city’s two giant clubs meet in what promises to be a fiery Champions League semi-final.
The prospect of two matches full of colour and pageantry between local rivals who between them have been crowned kings of Europe 10 times will dominate discussion in Milan, and remind fans when Italian football had a legitimate claim to call itself the world’s best.
Before the draw for the 2005 Champions quarter-finals former AC Milan managing director Adriano Galliani was desperate to not be drawn with another Italian team.
Galliani, who was Silvio Berlusconi’s right-hand man during Milan’s golden years, had already been through one derby in Europe’s top club competition two years previously when a star-studded outfit squeezed past Inter in the last four on away goals.
But even though Milan then went on to beat Juventus and lift the trophy for the sixth time in 2003, Galliani had no desire to repeat that experience.
“Above all I don’t want Inter because for those of us who live in Milan it would be hell,” he said.
“I can remember the weeks leading up to those two derbies in 2003 and they were the worst of all for the level of pre-match tension.”
In the end Galliani’s wish was not granted and that year’s last eight was the scene of possibly the most notorious derby of all, one which took on a hellish landscape in the second leg after Milan won the first 2-0.
Andriy Shevchenko effectively closed the tie in the 30th minute, but an Esteban Cambiasso goal being disallowed late on sparked fury among Inter fans, who launched a barrage of flares onto the pitch with one striking Milan goalkeeper Dida.
The players were ordered back into the dressing rooms and what became known as the “Derby of Shame” ended up being awarded 3-0 to Milan, who went through to the semis 5-0 on aggregate before eventually being beaten by Liverpool in one of the most thrilling Champions League finals of all time.
A new era
A footballing epoch has passed since those days, with both Milan clubs spending years in the doldrums at home and abroad until they won the two most recent Serie A titles between them.
Last season Milan dethroned Inter in an enthralling title race which went down to the final day, and while both teams are miles off this year’s runaway league leaders Napoli, the derby semi-final has two of Europe’s grand old clubs back at the continent’s top table.
“For us, this derby is a chance of revenge, a revenge of history and revenge also for last year,” said Inter chairman Steven Zhang after Wednesday’s straightforward passage past Benfica.
“It means a lot because when we started our players didn’t have experience in the Champions League and had never won any trophies.
“But now we are full of winners and full of players and staff who are aiming to go all the way, it means tons for all of us.”
Inter have had the better of the three derbies played so far this season, losing a thriller 3-2 in September but hammering Milan 3-0 in January’s Super Cup in Saudi Arabia and then beating them 1-0 in the league the following month.
And while this year’s league campaign has been a huge disappointment, with 11 defeats in 30 matches, Simone Inzaghi’s side have shown time and again that they can turn it on for the pressure games.
Meanwhile after a dismal post-World Cup slump Milan are looking more like the swashbuckling team which won the Scudetto last May and will be buoyed by getting past Italy’s champions-elect Napoli.
“We’ve seen in these last two years, we’ve played lots of matches with Milan and they are a very good team,” said Inzaghi.
“It all depends on what form each team is in coming into the match.”
Source: AFP
20, April 2023
Indomitable Lions: Calls for Andre Onana to return 0
Former Cameroon captain Stephane Mbia has called on national team legend Samuel Eto’o to act as peacemaker to help persuade goalkeeper Andre Onana to come out of international retirement.
Mbia says his country “needs” Onana, describing him as their best player.
Onana, 27, quit international football after falling out with head coach Rigobert Song during the Qatar World Cup last year, releasing a statement shortly afterwards that confirmed his “story with the Cameroonian national team has come to an end.”
“Cameroon remains eternal, as does my love for the national team and for our people, who have always supported us no matter how difficult the moment was,” the statement went on to say.
But there have been indications he could be willing to end his exile and Mbia, who played at two World Cups and two Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) for his country, has urged Eto’o, now president of the Cameroonian Football Federation (Fecafoot), to step in.
“Onana is a very good guy, I know him, and such things can happen in football,” he told BBC Sport Africa.
“We know there are problems, but let’s put them aside with president Eto’o because it was a misunderstanding.
“Onana is a very good player and he should try and talk to him. We need him and Cameroon needs him.”
Rigobert Song appointed Cameroon head coach
Mbia’s desire to see Onana return was increased by the Indomitable Lions’ recent poor performances in qualifying for next year’s Afcon in Ivory Coast, which included a 2-1 defeat away to Namibia.
“It was a lot of mistakes,” said Mbia, who was part of the Cameroon side that lost to Egypt in the 2008 Afcon final in Ghana.
“We have to try and work and do the same things we did in the last couple of years.”
Stephane Mbia won 68 caps for Cameroon, scoring five goals and playing at two World Cups including the 2014 tournament hosted by Brazil
A letter from the ministry
Onana is in good form as Inter Milan’s number one goalkeeper. He played in both legs as Inter beat Benfica to reach the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League and has kept six clean sheets in 10 matches in the competition.
And his performances even seem to have captured the attention of Cameroon’s minister of sport and physical education, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, who has written to Inter president Steven Zhang.
In the letter, Kombi also describes the World Cup involving row between Onana as a “misunderstanding with technical staff.”
“We ask you to allow this talented goalkeeper to satisfy his desire to keep representing his native country,” the letter continues, “to inspire millions of his fellow countrymen by making him available for the Indomitable Lions.”
Although it remains unclear exactly what role the Italian club has to play in any potential reconciliation between Onana and head coach Song, the letter strongly suggests moves are afoot to bring about peace.
Mbia is keen to see that happen.
“I don’t understand why he retired,” concluded the former midfielder who represented Cameroon 68 times.
“I think he’s going to come back and try to sort things out.”
Culled from the BBC