We return to Champions League action on Tuesday with a visit to one of European football's most famous clubs and stadiums when we tackle Inter Milan at the San Siro.
Incredibly, it will only be the fourth competitive meeting between the teams, as we face possibly our biggest challenge of the league phase with a tough trip to the home of last season's Champions League runners-up.
Ahead of the game, we've compiled everything you need to know about our opponents past and present before we lock horns in Milan:
The history
Football Club Internazionale was founded in March 1908 by a group of players who left the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now AC Milan) because they wanted to accept more foreigners - hence the club name deriving from international. They immediately joined Serie A and have remained there since - the only club to boast that honour.
The first of 20 league titles came in just their second season, and they enjoyed plenty of success in the 1930s, spearheaded by the goals of all-time top scorer Giuseppe Meazza, whom the San Siro is named after. A golden period arrived in the 1960s when they claimed three Serie A titles in four years, and back-to-back European and Intercontinental Cups.
However only three more league titles and two Coppa Italias would arrive in the final 30 years of the 20th century, and in 1993/94 they avoided relegation by a single point, but still won one of three UEFA Cups during the decade. Their fortunes changed and five straight titles were clinched between 2006 and 2010, culminating in becoming the first Italian team to win the Treble under Jose Mourinho.
His departure brought about a decade of decline, which saw them go six seasons without Champions League football, but Antonio Conte helped reestablish them as one of the country’s premier sides, winning the title in 2021 before a 20th was added three seasons later.
The stadium
One of the most iconic stadia in world football, the San Siro was opened in 1926 when Inter beat owners AC Milan 6-3. They shared the stadium from 1947 onwards, and ahead of the 1990 World Cup, its famous spiralling towers and red roof were added to take the capacity up to its present-day total of 80,000.
As well as at that World Cup finals, it also hosted matches in the 1934 edition, Euro 1980 and four European Cup/Champions League finals, the last being in 2016. It will also host the opening ceremony of next month's 2026 Winter Olympics, but due to its outdated facilities was rejected by UEFA as a host venue for Euro 2032 when Italy co-host with Turkey. Both Milan clubs recently purchased the site from the city council, and plans are in place to demolish the current structure once a new stadium is built next door.
The manager
After Simone Inzaghi called time on his four-year stint as manager to head to Al Hilal in June, Cristian Chivu was poached from Parma to replace him. The Romanian featured in defence for Ajax and Roma before switching to Inter in 2007, where he would spend seven seasons and was part of their treble-winning squad of 2010. He won 75 caps for his country and featured for them at both Euro 2000 and Euro 2008.
After retiring, his coaching career began in Inter's academy, working his way up to be head coach of the under-19 side. In February 2025 he was handed his first senior position at Parma, with the club 18th in Serie A. However three wins and seven draws from his 13 matches saw him steer them to safety, before returning to the San Siro.
Last season
Last term was a campaign of so near, yet so far for Inter. The reigning Serie A champions were involved in a tight title tussle with Napoli all season, with both sides enjoying periods at the summit, however successive defeats to Bologna and Roma saw Inter slip from top spot in late April, and a 90th-minute equaliser for Lazio in their penultimate match proved costly, as they missed out on successive Scudettos by a single point.
They exited the Coppa Italia at the semi-final stage to their city rivals AC Milan, who also beat them in the final of the Supercoppa, but Inzaghi's team impressed in the Champions League, finishing fourth in the league phase with six wins from eight, including one over us. They then knocked out Feyenoord, Bayern Munich and Barcelona in a classic two-legged leg that saw them win 4-3 in extra-time in the second leg to set up a showdown with Paris Saint-Germain, but a 5-0 defeat saw Inter suffer a record defeat in any major European final.
They also competed in the Club World Cup, after Chivu had stepped in following Inzaghi's sudden departure, but they were knocked out in the round of 16 by Fluminense.
The squad
Martinez has been the main goal threat for Inter since he arrived in 2018, and his 168 goals means he is their all-time top foreign scorer. He captains a side that also contains French international forward Marcus Thuram [above] and Turkish midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, who have both chipped in with double figures over the past two seasons.
Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer guards the goal and his international teammate Manuel Akanji joined on loan from Manchester City in the summer. He is joined in defence by Dutch defensive duo Stefan de Vrij and Denzel Dumfries - the latter hitting 11 goals last term from right-back. Former Gunner Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been a regular for the past three seasons, sharing gametime with Poland great Piotr Zielinski in midfield.
They boast five representatives from Italy's Euro 2024 squad - full-backs Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian, centre-backs Alessandro Bastoni and Francesco Acerbi and midfielders Nicolo Barella and Davide Frattesi. 20-year-old striker Pio Esposito has three goals in five appearances since debuting for the Azzurri last year.
The season so far
Chivu's time in charge has started well, with Inter topping Serie A after 21 games, three points ahead of neighbours AC. Two defeats in their opening three games left them playing catch-up, but a run of eight wins and a draw from their last nine games has propelled them into first place. They began 2026 with a win over Chuvu's former side Parma, and then drew 2-2 with Napoli in a top-of-the-table clash, while successive 1-0 wins over Lecce and Udinese were claimed in the past week.
Inter currently sit sixth in the Champions League table, and a victory against us would guarantee them a spot in the knockouts. That passage looked safe four games in when they beat Ajax, Slavia Prague, Union Saint-Gilloise and Kairat, but successive defeats to Atletico Madrid and Liverpool have seen them flirt with dropping out of the top eight. Progress in the Coppa Italia was made by beating Venezia, while they were defeated on penalties in the Italian Super Cup at the semi-final stage by Bologna in Saudi Arabia last month.
Unsurprisingly, Martinez leads the goalscoring charts again with 15 in 27 games, four of which have come in five Champions League appearances.
The history
Our first-ever competitive game at the San Siro brought one of our greatest-ever European nights, when we won 5-1 during the 2003/04 group stage, avenging a 3-0 loss at Highbury in the first-ever meeting of the sides in September 2003. But two months later, Thierry Henry put us in front before a deflected Christian Vieri effort pulled the hosts level. After the restart, Freddie Ljungberg edged us back in front before some solo Henry magic made it 3-1, and late strikes from Edu and Robert Pires sealed a historic victory.
Incredibly it would be 21 years until the sides met again when we were pitted against each other in the league phase, and we tasted a 1-0 defeat in Italy when Mikel Merino was harshly adjudged to have handled in the box, allowing Hakan Calhanoglu to score the only goal of the game from the penalty spot to inflict our only loss in our eight league-phase games.
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