Inter President Steven Zhang is proud of the fact that his team are Champions League semifinalists, particularly considering where they started from.

Speaking to InterTV after yesterday evening’s quarterfinal second leg draw against Benfica, via FCInterNews, the Nerazzurri President reflected on the fact that the team have made it this far starting with players who had previously had little or no European experience.

Inter have brought in some experienced campaigners over the past few years to bolster their ranks, from current players like Edin Dzeko, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Romelu Lukaku to former players like Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sanchez, and Aleksandr Kolarov.

However, the heart of the team has been players who joined the Nerazzurri without any experience in the Champions League.

Players like Nicolo Barella, Alessandro Bastoni, and Lautaro Martinez arrived never having played in Europe’s top club competition, whilst Federico Dimarco came through the Nerazzurri’s youth ranks.

All of these players arrived at Inter with big promise but a lot of growing to do.

Now, all of them are semifinalists in the Champions League, having dispatched the likes of Barcelona, Porto, and now Benfica to reach the penultimate stage of the competition where they’ll face city rivals AC Milan for a place in the biggest club match in Europe.

“I’m very satisfied, this is a reflection teamwork which had started from a long way back,” Zhang said.

“We began with players who had never participated in the Champions League and had never won a trophy, now we’re in the Champions League semi-final,” he added.

Of what facing Milan in the next round represents, Zhang said that “Tthe Milan derby certainly has always made me very happy in recent years.”

“We’ll certainly give it our all, we can redeem ourselves after what happened in the past, and we’ll certainly try to do our best.”

And to the fans of the team, Zhang said that “Of course I want to thank them because they are always behind us, with the same passion every weekend, every match.”

“We walk with them, and we’ll fight with them, and I hope they will support us until the end.”