Milano is the city dominated by rivalry between the two city’s soccer teams, Inter and AC Milan. Neither Manchester nor Madrid can outshine the combined class of Milano’s two arch-rivals, each of which has won a string of European cups. When the two teams clash directly in the derby match, the whole city holds its breath. 

The rivalry between the red-and-black ("rossoneri") and the black-and-blue ("nerazzurri") jerseys unfolds over the decades with historic duels between great football champions (Piola against Meazza, Mazzola against Rivera, Matthaus against Van Basten, Ibra against Lukaku), sensational jersey switches (Pirlo, Seedorf, Ronaldo, just to name a few, played for both teams) and legendary coaching figures like Helenio Herrera and Nereo Rocco in the 60s, Sacchi and Capello in the 90s, Ancelotti and Mourinho in the 2000s, who were all capable of bringing the most prestigious international trophies to the city.

The ups and downs of Inter and Milan are what the whole city talks about, in the bars and on the trams, while reading the very Milanese Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. Seeing the two teams collide at the San Siro Stadium is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will turn you into a partisan tifoso or tifosa: you’ll either root for the nerazzurri or for the rossoneri for the rest of your life.

AC Milan owes its English name to being founded by Englishman Herbert Kilpin in 1899, while Inter was founded in 1908 by dissident associates of AC Milan who disagreed with the rule that the red-and-black club had given itself not to draft foreign players. Coming to today, after so many years and over 200 official derby matches, the challenge is always about achieving (temporary) supremacy in the city, while competing for the first places in the Serie A standings.