Brighton and Hove Albion coach Roberto De Zerbi is anticipating a special matchup between Inter and AC Milan in the Champions League semifinals next month.
Speaking to Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, the 43-year-old gave his thoughts on what the Milan derby being played in the penultimate stage of Europe’s top club competition will mean for Serie A and Italian football.
Despite the doom and gloom around the financial side of the Italian game in recent years, teams from Serie A have been shining in Europe this season.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Champions League, where the Nerazzurri and the Rossoneri have booked their places in the penultimate round of the competition, all whilst sitting outside of the top four places in the league table.
The Milan derby is always one of the showpiece occasions in Italian football, having rarely disappointed over the past few seasons, and now it will be played out twice at one of the most important stages in European club football, with the eyes of the continent and the world fixed upon it.
“Milan and Inter in the Champions League has always been a particularly important match for Italian football,” Brighton and former Sassuolo and Sahakhtar Donetsk coach De Zerbi said, “it’s a classic match with massive stake.”
“It certainly will have a particular significance,” he went on.
“But in this case it’s not just Milan and Inter in the Champions League that’s important for Italian football,” the 43-year-old coach went on.
“Then there’s also Roma, Juventus, and Fiorentina in the semifinal stage of the competitions that they’re in, the Europa League and the Conference League, which last season Roma in fact won,” he added.
Inter and Milan will face in the Champions League semifinal two-legged tie on the 10th and the 16th of next month.