As Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson would probably have said: “Bloody Italians.”

Without an Italian to their name, and coached by a certain Portuguese, Inter Milan returned to the days when they ruled Europe through their famed ‘Catenaccio’ defensive system - combined, cynics ventured, with an influential fiscal policy (ahem) towards referees.

‘Catenaccio’ evocatively translates as “door-bolt” and was brought to fame by Inter’s Argentine coach Heleno Herrera through his side’s 1964 and 1965 European Cup wins and more so when the bolt was unlocked in their 1967 final defeat to Celtic.

 

It had an intellectual complexity – injured absentees in 1967 contributed to its downfall as well as Jimmy Johnstone. But to the layman, it resembled “grab a goal and then camp in your own penalty area until full-time.”

Inter, however, had grabbed three goals in the thrilling first-leg in Milan. And they weren’t letting go.

Jose Mourinho pulled all the tricks in the book. And in replacing Goran Pandev with Christian Chivu – which instigated a suspiciously well-rehearsed ‘last-minute’ tactical alteration – he pulled a trick for the updated edition.

Thiago Motta deserved his dismissal. His hand in Sergio Busquets’ face was a bookable offence and he’d already been booked. But it just gave the strategy more compactness. And, as ITV pundit Gareth Southgate perceptively noted at half-time, it ‘reduced’ the last 62 minutes to a training-ground exercise.

‘Reduced’ isn’t the word, though. There was nothing small about the defenders. And Esteban Cambiasso exposed Diego Maradona’s weakness as an international manager – Maradona has yet to pick him, which is insane.

This year’s Champions League knock-out stage has been as wonderful as the group stage was wonderless (UEFA, stop counting the money and take note).

And this semi-final will be talked about for as long as football is talked about at all.