The curse of San Siro

Precedents. Real Madrid and Inter have met in total in 16 official matches (ten in the European Cup, two in the Recopa de Europa and four in the UEFA Cup), settled with seven wins of the spanish set, two draws and seven club wins neroazzurro. Real Madrid scored 23 goals in all of them and conceded 21.

San Siro. Madrid has played seven times against him Inter in Milan, adding two draws, five defeats, four goals in favor and 12 against. He never won at San Siro to Inter in official match. In his last three visits with them he has conceded as many defeats (2-0 in 1985, 3-1 in 1986 and 3-1 in 1998). The last tie dates from 1983 in the Recopa (1-1, with goals scored by Oriali and Ricardo Gallego).

Losing streak. San Siro (or Giuseppe Meazza) is the world stadium in which more official matches (16) has played Madrid without ever winning. There the whites have faced Inter seven times, Milan seven others and Atlético de Madrid one, reaping five draws and ten defeats. In his fifteen official visits to the city of Milan, Madrid only scored nine goals and received 28 against …

La Manita from Milan. Real Madrid did win at San Siro in a friendly match organized on the occasion of Centenary of Milan. The meeting was held on August 1, 2000 and ended with scandal win (1-5) and a monumental display from Guti, who scored twice from outside the area and gave Morientes an assist, as well as completing an astonishing performance. Etoo also scored one of the white goals.

Italy, talisman. Madrid have won their last four games visiting Italian rivals (0-2 to Roma in 2016, 1-3 to Napoli in 2017, 0-3 to Juventus in 2018 and 0-2 to Rome in 2018). Before this fantastic streak of consecutive wins on transalpine soil, the Whites had accumulated, between 1956 and 2015, four victories, eight draws and 18 defeats in 30 official matches in Italy against rivals from that country.

Inter. For Inter it will be match number 52 against an rival Spanish in European competitions and so far has added fifteen wins, thirteen draws and 23 defeats. There are only seven teams that have measured themselves more times against Spanish opponents than Inter in the different continental tournaments: Juventus (74), Bayern (62), Milan (57) and Manchester United (56).

Powerful. Inter has played as local 23 times against Spanish rivals in continental tournaments, adding nine wins, eleven draws and conceding only three defeats. The only Spanish teams that have won at Giuseppe Meazza are Barcelona (2-4 in 1959 and 1-2 in 2019) and Alavés (0-2 in 2001).

Captain. The Madrid has lost seven of the last eight games who has played in the European Cup without Sergio Ramos: 1-3 against Juventus (April 11, 2018), 1-0 against CSKA Moscow (October 2, 2018), 0-3 against CSKA Moscow (December 12, 2018), 1-4 against Ajax (March 5, 2019 ), 3-0 against PSG (18-9-2019), 2-1 against Manchester City (7 August 2020) and 2-3 against Shakhtar Donetsk (October 21, 2020). The only white victory without its captain during this terrible run, in the top European competition, it's a 1-3 in Bruges on the last day of the group stage last season.

A machine. Romelu lukaku he has scored in nine of the last ten games he has played in European competitions (12 goals in total). Alone failed against Shakhtar in Kiev, on the second day of this group stage (did not play in Valdebebas the night of 3-2 in favor of Zidane's team). The Belgian striker has scored 34 goals in the 43 games he has played at year 2020 with his club and with the national team. Only Robert Lewandowski (40), Erling Haaland (37) and Cristiano Ronaldo (36) improve their scoring figures.

Calculations. If he Real Madrid lose tonight in Milan against Inter he will face the final two days with only four points, figure that only served to pass a group stage of the Champions League 20% of the teams. With five points they made it 51% and with seven points passed 74%. But still losing today against Inter, if Madrid win their last two games (against Shakhtar, next Tuesday, December 1, and with Gladbach in Valdebebas, on 9-D) will be in the round of 16 draw of final independently of the rest of results that could occur in the other parties of his group. It is a key figure because it reflects that Zidane's Madrid, despite all the problems accumulated these months, depends on itself to meet the objective of overcoming the group stage.