Inter Milan v Barça: Did you know?

There are plenty of interesting facts and figures that connect FC Barcelona and Inter Milan. Here are some of them:


► FC Barcelona have won the European Cup/Champions League three times: 1992 in Wembley; 2006 in Paris and 2009 in Roma.

► The last reigning champion to win the CL was Milan in 1990.

► Inter has won it twice: in 1964 and 1965.

► This is FC Barcelona’s ninth visit to Milan. In the previous eight trips, Barça won three, drew three and lost two against the two Milan based clubs.

► The last time Barça visited the city was in the CL semi-finals in the 2005/06 season. Barça secured a narrow 0-1 win thanks to a goal from Giuly in the 57th minute.

► The first meeting between the two sides in the CL was on 26th February 2003. The match ended 3-0 in Barça’s favour with goals from Saviola, Cocu and Kluivert, giving FC Barcelona a record breaking eleven straight wins in the competition.

► The return match ended in a goalless draw but though Barça went through to the quarterfinals as group winners, it was Inter that made it to the semi-finals. Zanetti (Inter), Puyol and Xavi are the only players in the current squads that took part in that match in the Giuseppe Meazza.

► José Mourinho was on the Barça coaching staff from 1996 to 2000 as assistant to Sir Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal. During those four years he rubbed shoulders with Pep Guardiola, then a Barça player.

► During his stint as Chelsea manager, Mourinho defeated FC Barcelona in the CL quarterfinals in 2004 only to see the tables turned in the same round the following year. In the 2006/07 season, Chelsea got the best of the two group stage matches, winning in London and drawing in the Camp Nou.

► Guardiola has won five trophies in just over a year whereas Mourinho has won fifteen in seven years.

► Guardiola is one of only six men to win Europe’s top club trophy both as a player and as a manager. The others are Miguel Muñoz, Giovanni Trapattoni, Johan Cruyff, Carlo Ancelotti and Frank Rijkaard.

► Fate has decided that Eto’o and Ibrahimovic will play against their former team-mates in the first match of this season’s CL.

► Eto’o spent five seasons with FC Barcelona, with some impressive statistics: 109 goals in 144 league matches and 18 goals in 43 CL matches. He also scored the opening goals in the 2006 and 2009 finals.

► In his last three seasons with Inter Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored 57 goals in 88 league matches and 6 goals in 22 CL matches.

► Thierry Henry has won and lost against Inter. The French international lost in the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 1996 when he played for Monaco but then scored twice in the Giuseppe Meazza for his old club Arsenal in 2003 in the CL.

► Xavi and Messi are also defending their awards as best midfielder and best forward and best player respectively in last season’s CL.

► Since the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, Barça have not conceded a single goal in the following four matches. Victor Valdés has been unbeaten for a total of 436 minutes.