{"id":12679,"date":"2026-01-19T21:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12679"},"modified":"2026-01-21T09:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:52:15","slug":"addio-san-siro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12679","title":{"rendered":"Addio, San Siro?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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And so to Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza \u2013 San Siro \u2013 for our penultimate Champions League league phase game on Tuesday evening in what will be only our fourth encounter with Internazionale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our visit will also be among our last to one of the most storied football stadiums, where we have enjoyed highs \u2014 the unforgettable 5-1 win over Inter in 2003 \u2014 and lows \u2014 the 4-0 defeat by AC Milan in 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of to-ing and fro-ing over the stadium’s future, the two Milan clubs have bought their historic home from the city for \u20ac197 million. They will build a new 71,500-seat stadium (San Siro has 75,817 seats) alongside the existing one, which they will then raise to make room for money-spinning, sorry, diversified revenue streams from commercial and entertainment facilities as part of an urban regeneration project, as is the fashion these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuovo San Siro (naming rights to come, lucratively no doubt), will be jointly designed by London architects Foster + Partners and US-based Manica, a sports and events specialist. The firms have worked together before, notably on the striking Lusail Stadium that Qatar built for its 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan is for construction to start next year, and the clubs to be in their new home by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sale was announced just before November\u2019s 70th anniversary of the addition of the stadium’s second tier with its distinctive 11 spiral towers and steeply banked seating. Had that milestone been reached under municipal ownership, Lombardy’s protections for cultural sites would have prevented the demolition of San Siro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of any moist-eyed nostalgia, a world-class venue is needed not only by the clubs, but also by Italian football, which has not staged a UEFA final in a decade because of the ageing state of its stadiums and is due to co-host the 2032 Euros with Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Siro dates from 1926 and was built on the model of British football stadiums (i.e., no athletic\/cycling track around the pitch, as was the Italian preference). It was originally solely AC Milan’s home. Inter did not begin sharing with its rivals until 1947. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clubs had previous. Inter was founded in 1908 by a breakaway group from AC Milan’s predecessor, the Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club, who wanted, as you would never guess, the club to take in more non-Italian members. Both clubs’ origin stories are retold in the preview https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10291<\/a> of our CL meeting last season, when Inter was the sole club to beat us in the league phase, extending our sequence of CL visits to Italy in which we failed to register either a win or a goal to five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chivu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season, our hosts have a new manager, Cristian Chivu, a 45-year-old former Romania international with Inter DNA. He won the treble in 2010, playing left back for Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s Nerazzurri. After retiring, he coached Inter’s youth teams for five and a half seasons before becoming head coach of relegation-threatened Parma last February, keeping them up with a final-day away win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days after taking a 5-0 paddling from PSG in last season’s CL final, leaving Inter trophyless for the first time in his four seasons there, head coach Simone Inzaghi departed \u2018by mutual consent\u2019. Chivu returned to succeed him, despite having been in charge at Parma for only 10 Serie A games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chivu’s Inter youth teams had won trophies. They played high-pressing, positional football, not Inzaghi’s typically Italian, defensively solid, ruthlessly efficient football. So far, at least, Chivu has not deviated much from his predecessor’s core but ageing starting XI or its 3-5-2 formation. With an average age of 28.8 years, no club in Europe’s Big Five leagues has an older squad than Inter. Six times this season, Inter’s starting XI has had an average age of at least 30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a club that demands silverware, Chivu cannot just jettison the players who had got Inter to two Champions League finals in three seasons and had not finished outside Serie A\u2019s top three in four. Yet gradual rejuvenation is underway as tactical tweaks, summer recruitment and Chivu’s integration of players from his youth teams underline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testudo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team plays higher up the pitch with a younger back three now holding the highest defensive line in Serie A. There is more intensity off the ball in the press, and the team aims to control the tempo of games by building from the back. However, once it takes the lead, it reverts to what Chivu calls a ‘tortoise shell\u2019 \u2014 a testudo, for the classicists \u2014 a deep 5-4-1 that has secured seven 1-0 league victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, Inter leads Serie A after 21 games with 49 points, three more than AC Milan and six more than Napoli. It has won 16, drawn one and lost four, conceding 17 goals. That sounds miserly, but it is the joint-worst defensive record among Serie A’s top six clubs, and an indication of the vulnerability of the new high line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the CL Inter sits sixth, losing away to Atl\u00e9tico and then at home to Liverpool after starting with four straight wins. It needs a point to at least guarantee a knock-out qualifier for the Round of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swiss international Jan Sommer should be in goal. The 37-year-old is having an inconsistent season, his last at Inter, but his presumptive long-term replacement, Spaniard Josep Mart\u00ednez, is injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebuilt back three comprises another Swiss international, Manuel Akanji, who is on loan from the Oil-landers, 26-year-old Italy international Alessandro Bastoni, who was rested at the weekend amid reports of a move to Liverpool, and Yann Bisseck, a one-cap (off the bench) Germany international, a year Bastoni’s junior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inzaghi’s defence was usually selected from the trophy-laden Bastoni, plus Benjamin Pavard, the 29-year-old French international sold to Olympique Marseille over the summer; former Italy international Francesco Acerbi, now 37; and Netherlands international Stefan de Vrij, 33, who may be off to Geordie Arabia. Their younger replacements give Chivu the athleticism to play a higher line, but the old tortoises still come on to close out games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazilian Luis Henrique, who is lightning fast but has struggled to establish a place since arriving in the summer from Olympique Marseille for \u20ac22,8 million, will likely start at right wing back as Netherlands international Denzel Dumfries is recovering from ankle surgery. Italy international Federico Dimarco should start on the left. Chivu has also used left-back Carlos Augusto, a fringe Brazil international, there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his midfield, Chivu has the seemingly evergreen Henrikh Mkhitaryan, formerly of this parish but now 36, Italy’s diminutive international Nicol\u00f2 Barella and the skilful Poland international, Piotr Zieli\u0144ski, who has more than 100 caps \u2014 and a salary to match that Inter is looking to get off its books. However, Chivu will not have his main man in midfield, Turkiye\u2019s 100-plus-cap captain, Hakan \u00c7alhano\u011flu, who is out with a calf injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another summer arrival, 22-year-old Croatia international Petar ‘Luka’ Su\u010di\u0107, who cost \u20ac14 million from Dinamo Zagreb, could also make an appearance. Su\u010di\u0107’s bright start has moved him up Inter’s pecking order ahead of Italy international Davide Frattesi, who interests Forest, and Andy Diouf, a summer signing from Lens who played for TH14’s France team at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up front will be the \u2018Thu-La\u2019 pairing of the Parma-born France international Marcus Thuram, another rested at the weekend, and Inter’s in-form talisman and captain, Lautaro Mart\u00ednez. Inter has scored a league-leading 44 goals, and the Argentina international is Serie A’s leading marksman this season with 11. He is also closing in on third on Inter’s all-time goalscorers list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chivu has been giving increasing minutes off the bench to two young forwards, 22-year-old Ange-Yoan Bonny, a former France U-21 winger bought from Parma in July for \u20ac23 million, and especially Pio Esposito, a highly-regarded 20-year-old striker in the big and strong mould who captained Chivu’s Inter U-19 team. Already capped by Italy, Esposito scored three goals in five games in World Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need a point from our final two games to avoid a knockout round tie and qualify directly for the Round of 16. The higher we finish in the league phase, the more advantageous the Round of 16 draw, so I expect Arteta to start a strong side, despite the need to rest some tired legs. Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00d8degaard, Zubimendi, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Jes\u00f9s, Trossard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A match between a free-scoring home team with a vulnerable defence and visitors with a rock-solid defence but a misfiring attack has the makings of a close contest. There will likely be only a single goal in it, perhaps even none. Nonetheless, I’ll back Arteta to win the tactical duel for game control and bring home a 1-0 to The Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to Milan’s Stadio Giuseppe Meazza \u2013 San Siro \u2013 for our penultimate Champions League league phase game on Tuesday evening in what will be only our fourth encounter with Internazionale. Our visit will also be among our last to one of the most storied football stadiums, where we have enjoyed highs \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12679"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12697,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12679\/revisions\/12697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}