The final whistle went at the San Siro and a crowd totalling 6,449 let out a collective sigh of relief after Éder scored in injury time to give Inter Milan a 2-1 win over Sparta Prague.
It was December 2016. The three points meant nothing. Inter were already out of the Europe League, and the game was just a formality with the prize money at stake the only thing giving the game some competitive edge.
Seven years later and Inter are a club transformed. They have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals after their 2-0 victory over Benfica at the Estádio da Luz last week, with a Milan derby awaiting them in the semifinals.
The last time they made it to that stage of the competition, José Mourinho was in charge and Inter were hurtling towards a seemingly impossible treble. That ended up as the crowning glory for a group of players after five consecutive Scudettos, and their last hurrah.
Inter slowly slid down the European pecking order after that, with their only piece of silverware during this period being the Coppa Italia in 2011.
Things fell apart after that Sparta Prague game as they went on an eight game winless run between April and May, and that led to Inter finishing in seventh place.
Conte's legacy
The transformation of the club has brought one Scudetto, one Coppa Italia, and two Supercoppa Italiana titles to the blue and black side of the San Siro over the last three years, and they reached the Europa League final in 2020 under Antonio Conte.
It was the Italian coach that started the process of creating the modern day Inter Milan, a group that are hoping to finish the project that started with Conte by reaching their first Champions League final since 2010.
He implemented his infamous 3-5-2 system that remains the current set up under Simone Inzaghi, who took over from Conte after he left the club by mutual consent in May 2021.
The spine of both teams has been consistent, with eight players from the Europa League final in 2020 having a place in the squad against Benfica in 2023. They are a group that has matured together, with the only real departures during the last three seasons being Ivan Perišić’s going to Tottenham Hotspur and Achraf Hakimi joining PSG.
Everything else has remained consistent. Even Romelu Lukaku slotted right back as a strike partner to Lautaro Martínez when he returned to the San Siro on loan from Chelsea.
If anything, this squad has slowly been strengthened by calculated signings that have added a new layer of depth to each position.
At the back, club captain Samir Handanović now has André Onana as his understudy, with the goalkeeper a veteran of the Ajax team that reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2019.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who came in last summer from Roma, operates in the same midfield position that Christian Eriksen once had during the Scudetto winning season of 2020-21.
Denzel Dumfries was the most crucial signing made as he took up the full-back role vacated by Hakimi.
This consistency has allowed Inter to navigate post COVID Italian football, an era that has started with a vacuum at the top after Juventus’ fall from grace.
Inter used this time to win every domestic trophy available to them, and now Europe is their ambition. The last team in black and blue in their position did the unthinkable and became the first ever Serie A side to win the treble. Before that was the Grande Inter team under Helenio Herrera that won back to back European Cups in 1964 and 1965.
Inter know what the true measure for success is at the San Siro, their near neighbours remind them enough with their seven stars. This group also know that their legacy will be judged on what happens over the coming weeks and their seeimingly inevitable semifinal clash. It all starts with a meeting with Benfica on Wednesday night
