Inter and Milan on the pitch five times with just one shirt

If we are together there will be a reason: Inter and Milan discovered it for the first time in the autumn of 1965. Golden age, seasons of happy toasts. Those were the times when the two clubs dominated Italy and Europe, Milan was the capital of football.

Nereo Rocco’s AC Milan wins the Scudetto (1962) and is the first Italian team to triumph in the European Cup (1963), Helenio Herrera opens the fabulous cycle that from 1963 to 1966 will lead Inter to win three league titles, two Cups Champions and two Intercontinental Cups. A planetary domain, sealed by a weird idea: but what if we put the rivalry aside and tried – just for fun – to combine the best of the two teams and create a sort of Dream Team? Ok, done. Since then, the MilanInter selection will take the field five times.

The first time was on Wednesday, 13 October 1965. Championship stopped due to the commitments of the national teams, at San Siro MilanInter face Chelsea in front of 36,339 paying players. Excellencies in the stands, side by side the president of Fifa Stanley Rous and the Duke of Edinburgh. Up for grabs is the Italian-British Friendship Trophy, before the kick-off the bands of the Scottish Thistle Group and the 42nd English Black Watch perform. The shirt is white with a red cross, they are the colors of the city of Milan. Two coaches: Helenio Herrera and Nils Liedholm. The Swede leaves the tactical direction to the Mago.

Eyes on Antonio Valentin Angelillo, who has been with Milan since the beginning of the season. But it was Inter that made the phenomenon, scoring the record of 33 goals in 1958-59. The Magician, who doesn’t like Angelillo’s love story with the dancer Attilia Tironi, stage name Ylia Lopez, kicked him out of Inter. MilanInter beats Chelsea 2-1, Angelillo scores the first goal (assist from Corso), the Mago – who shamelessly – publicly congratulates him. The other goal was scored by Peirò. It is a formation without the Azzurri Mazzola and Rivera, they are both in the national team. There is a problem with the referee. The designated is Giulio Campanati, but at the last moment he gives himself unavailable, so his colleague, Raoul Righi, is called on the fly. The game goes live on television at 9.15 pm, on the second channel.

June 1969, it is repeated. This time we play in Lyon, the occasion is the twinning of the French city with Milan, complete with an official meeting of the two mayors: the former partisan and now socialist Aldo Aniasi and Louis Pradel. Sorpresona: it is a selection practically only Rossoneri, that evening – Wednesday 11 June – in fact Inter at San Siro won the City of Milan Trophy by beating Juventus, two goals from Giacinto Facchetti, more acute than Sandro Mazzola. The friendly match in Lyon ends 7-1 for the Milanese team. There is no match. Double from Sergio Gori known as Bobo (the only Inter player to score), Hamrin, Rivera, Santin, Maldera and Salvemini also enter the scorer.

All in white jersey with red and blue stripes. Pepin Meazza on the bench to represent Inter, Nereo Rocco for Milan. This is the freshly European champion AC Milan: just two weeks earlier – on May 28 – at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Rocco’s team gave a football lesson to the Dutch Ajax. Yes, Cruijff is on the pitch that night. But the scene is taken by Gianni Rivera. Rocco was given a bolt. Go and reread the five of the attack, thanks: Hamrin, Lodetti, Sormani, Rivera, Prati. Lodetti alone in making wood, the others in singing football.

The cause that moves the selection to meet again in the winter of 1980 is noble. On Wednesday 17 December, the friendly MilanInter vs Bayern Munich is organized to donate the proceeds to the earthquake victims of Irpinia. Twenty thousand go to San Siro, 94 million lire and change are collected. Billboard names in Bayern: Karl Heinz Rummenigge, Paul Breitner, Uli Hoeness, Klaus Augenthaler, staples of Germany who a few months earlier became European Champion. Little desire to run on both sides, in the newspapers there is talk of a “game with an academic tone”. In short: it trots.

Inter won the Scudetto in May, Milan are not doing very well. The Nerazzurri hard core is made up of Bordon, Beppe Baresi, Oriali, Marini, Altobelli, Beccalossi. In Milan there are Collovati, Franco Baresi, Buriani and “Dustin” Antonelli, who scores the goal of the Milanese selection. 1980 is also the year in which borders are reopened. The only foreigner in MilanInter is the Austrian Herbert Prohaska, known as Lumachina. The game is boring like a documentary on freshwater fish, Bayern wins 2-1 (Hoeness and Janzon), Carletto Muraro is injured, in the Distinti the fans of Inter and Milan send each other to that country, exactly that.

The last two appearances of MilanInter date back to 1982. It is the year of the Mundial that will see us triumph in Spain, between February and April the national teams of Peru and Poland are on tour in Italy. Both are included – together with Cameroon – in the group of Italy. Sunday 21 February, the championship is stopped. At San Siro, Milan, Inter 1-2 Poland. Polish advantage with Smolarek, doubling of Boniek, goal of the flag of Aldo Serena. Sixteen thousand paying, at least four thousand posted at the last moment. Paolo Casarin referees. In the stands the (few) Polish fans raise chants in favor of Solidarnosc, while the Inter fans (more than the Milan fans) respond by praising Beccalossi.

The Beck is the man of the day. There is no room for the ace of Inter in the national team, despite the support of the people. Coach Enzo Bearzot does not consider him. There are four months to go until the World Cup in Spain, but Beccalossi does not give up. Any chance is good to try to change Bearzot’s mind. On 10 Inter Milan is busy even if around him there is what the newspapers call “a Brancaleone army”. Even Zibì Boniek makes an interlocutory statement, but certainly not nice to his colleague: “In Poland someone like Beccalossi would never play, but in the Azzurri national team he should be a permanent player”. As if to say: between the quality of Poland and that of Italy there is no competition.

On Wednesday, April 14, the Milanese selection will face Peru at the San Siro, refereed by Mr. Agnolin from Bassano del Grappa. 2-0 for the national team of Quiroga and Uribe, there is no story: the goals are scored by Leguia and Malasquez, but they could have been four-five. Inter Milan are in an emergency. There are no nationals, there are also foreigners Joe Jordan and Herbert Prohaska. They are bruised, better not to risk. San Siro deserted, there is no dog. With the number 9 – from center forward – Joao Carlos Lopez known as “Bugre”, forward of Commercial Campo Grande, is deployed.

He is a semi-unknown Brazilian on trial at Inter. The great Jair, who advises Ivanoe Fraizzoli for the South American market, recommended him to the club. Boh. Bugre wanders around the field, he only struggles when there is a free kick from about forty meters to be beaten. He demands the ball, takes a very long run and kicks. Oh well, the ball goes out. Two hours before the Italy of Enzo Bearzot lost 1-0 in Leipzig, in a friendly against East Germany. He is blowing a bad air around the Azzurri, it is rumored that in the World Cup our national team will be eliminated immediately.