Former Inter defender Daniele Adani feels that AC Milan’s path to the final four of the Champions League has been tougher than what the Nerazzurri have faced should they join their city rivals in the semifinals by progressing against Benfica.

Speaking on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel, via FCInterNews, Adani contrasted the paths that the two teams have taken through the knockout rounds of Europe’s top club competition, highlighting the fact that the Rossoneri had to get past Napoli.

In the round of sixteen, both Inter and Milan had ties with remarkably similar dynamics.

For both the Nerazzurri and the Rossoneri, tightly-fought 1-0 in the first leg of the tie at home was followed by a gritty 0-0 draw to see out the tie in an away second leg, against Porto and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.

Then, in the last eight, Inter drew high-flying Benfica, against whom they’ll play the second leg of their quarterfinal tie this evening, whilst Milan were pitted against runaway Serie A leaders Napoli.

The Rossoneri have done their bit to set up a potential Milan derby semifinal tie, by securing an impressive 2-1 aggregate win over the Partenopei which ripped up the form book considering the two teams’ respective league table positions.

Now, it will be up to Inter to see out a 2-0 first leg advantage against Benfica to try and reach the penultimate round of Europe’s top club competition.

In the view of Adani, however, nothing that the Nerazzurri could do would match up to their city rivals’ accomplishment in overcoming Napoli in a two-legged tie.

“The Rossoneri have perhaps had the even tougher path to get to this point, as they had to overcome Napoli,” the former defender argued.

He also looked back on the semifinal tie between the two teams in 2003, two decades ago, noting that “They were six of the most tense days in the city of Milan.”

“It seems like a twist of fate that now twenty years on we’re so close to reliving the same feeling.”