FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.08.2009 20:45

Four time Serie A champions plus reencounters

Jordi Clos

Barça’s meetings with Inter will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the Champions League group stage. Among other things, it brings the return of Eto'o and Mourinho to the Campo Nou.

When Barça and Inter agreed to the exchange of Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic a few weeks, who would have thought that the two clubs would be meeting each other so soon after. Champions League draws tend to throw up the most curious of clashes, and this one between the Serie A and Liga champions is one of them. And it will Inter v Barça at the Giuseppe Meazza that kicks off the round, on September 16. The sides meet again in the penultimate round of matches, at the Camp Nou, on November 24, five days before the clásico against Madrid. Apart from Eto'o, this will also be a reencounter with FCB for former employees José Mourinho, Thiago Motta and Ricardo Quaresma.

Champions League still missing

In his first season in Milan, the Portuguese manager, and former assistant to the late Bobby Robson at Barça, won the club’s fourth consecutive Scudetto by a massive ten point margin over second placed Juve, and also won the Super Cup. But the one Internazionale are really after is the Champions League – four decades without a final appearance is too long for such a big club with such a proud history behind it.

Star studded squad

Club owner, Massimo Moratti, certainly has the players to do it. As if they didn’t already have an impressive enough squad, he has strengthened his side with Samuel Eto'o, Thiago Motta, Diego Milito and Lúcio. These join the likes of Chivu, Maicon, Stankovic, Vieira and Zanetti. True to the club’s name, there are very few Italians in the line up, although young Santon and Balotelli are both tipped for future success.

Inter started the league season with a 1-1 draw at Bari, having missing out on the Supercoppa with 2-1 defeat to Lazio.

Three previous meetings

It is not so long since Barça and Inter last met in this tournament. That was in 2002/03, when there was still a second Champions League group stage, and Barça won 3-0 at the Camp Nou and then collected a valuable draw in Italy to top the group. Long before that, in the 1969 Fairs Cup, the ‘nerazzurri’ put the ‘blaugrana’ out in the round of sixteen. Ten years earlier, in 1959, and in the same competition, it was the Catalans that went through to the tune of a resounding 8-2 win on aggregate.

Inter were also the guests at the Joan Gamper Trophy in 2007, when Frank Rijkaard’s side won by an extraordinary 5-0.