FC Internazionale Milano v Valencia CF MATCH PRESS KIT Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan Wednesday, 21 February 2007 - 20:45CET First knockout round, First leg - Matchday 7 Contents 1 - Match background 7 - UEFA information 2 - Match facts 8 - Match-by-match lineups 3 - Squad list 9 - Competition facts 4 - Head coach profiles 10 - Team facts 5 - Match officials 11 - Competition information 6 - Domestic information 12 - Legend Match background As FC Internazionale Milano and Valencia CF prepare to meet for the fourth time in six seasons, it is doubtful they have any secrets from each other. The Spanish side showed the better form in the group stage and emerged as winners of their section but Inter have had the upper hand in matches between the sides. Valencia also have one particularly unhappy memory of the Giuseppe Meazza stadium as they lost the 2001 final there on penalties to FC Bayern München. • Last Thursday, UEFA announced the match would take place in Milan following consultations between the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Italian Ministry of Home Affairs in the wake of recent spectator incidents in Italy. The permitted capacity will be 36,000. The FIGC told UEFA that the stadium was already in conformity with some of the measures provided for by Italian law, and that additional work had been undertaken to fully comply with new measures that have come into force. • Inter eliminated Valencia in the quarter-finals of both the 2001/02 UEFA Cup and 2002/03 UEFA Champions League. Two seasons after the second of those meetings, Inter recorded a remarkable 5-1 group-stage win at Mestalla and now face the same opponents as they pursue a place in the last eight for the fourth time in five seasons. • The sides first met in UEFA club competition in the last eight of the UEFA Cup five seasons ago, with Inter held 1-1 at home before triumphing 1-0 in Spain thanks to Nicola Ventola's early strike. • Inter and Valencia were reunited in the last eight of the UEFA Champions League the following season, when Christian Vieri's 32nd-minute effort proved enough for Inter - whose coach Héctor Cúper had recently joined from Valencia - to win the home leg. The same player scored again five minutes into the return and that proved crucial as the Italian side advanced on away goals despite goals from Pablo Aimar and Rubén Baraja for Valencia. • In the 2004/05 group stage it was even worse for Valencia as they conceded five goals at home to Roberto Mancini's men for whom Dejan Stanković, Adriano and Julio Cruz were all on the scoresheet. They regained some respect with a scoreless draw in Italy but Inter went on to win the group with Valencia finishing third. • Inter's first home game this season ended in a 2-0 defeat by Bayern but FC Spartak Moskva (2-1) and Sporting Clube de Portugal (1-0) were then defeated, helping the Italian outfit take second place in Group B. Inter managed only five goals in their six games, three of them scored by Cruz in only 174 minutes of action. Last updated 20.02.2007 14:38:30CET www.uefa.com Page 1 FC Internazionale Milano v Valencia CF MATCH PRESS KIT • The Nerazzurri were successful at this stage 12 months ago, recovering from AFC Ajax's storming start to draw 2-2 in the away game as Stanković and Cruz scored second-half goals. Stanković then sealed a 1-0 win in the return. • Inter were European Champion Clubs' Cup winners in 1963/64 and again the following year and that first triumph, a 3-1 victory in Vienna, came at the expense of Spanish opposition in the shape of Real Madrid CF. At home Inter have lost just once to Spanish visitors, 2-0 to Deportivo Alavés in the fourth round of the 2000/01 UEFA Cup. Of the other 14 games they have won eight with six draws. • Valencia won four of their six group fixtures to finish top of Group D with 13 points and with five goals, Fernando Morientes is the joint leading scorer in the competition. In three of their four previous UEFA Champions League campaigns the Spanish side reached at least the quarter-finals. • Valencia's final game in this year's group stage took them to Italy and an encounter with AS Roma. A 1-0 defeat meant the Mestalla club have won just once in nine matches on Italian soil – against Roma in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League second group stage – with six defeats. The second leg is on 6 March. Match facts Inter • Two Inter players have featured in all six of their UEFA Champions League matches to date: Javier Zanetti and Maicon. Only Maicon has played all 540 minutes so far. • Having made his 100th UEFA club competition appearance against Sporting Clube de Portugal on Matchday 5, Zanetti featured for the 50th time in the UEFA Champions League away to FC Bayern München in Inter's concluding Group B fixture. Dejan Stanković brought up his half-century in the competition on Matchday 5. • Zanetti was the second member of the Inter squad to reach a century of UEFA club games; Luís Figo leads the way on 134 matches and is also the most experienced member of the squad in UEFA Champions League terms with 95. • Zanetti became the second player to achieve the landmark of 100 UEFA club competition appearances while with Inter after Giuseppe Bergomi, who featured 117 times in Europe for the Italian club. Iván Córdoba is level with former Inter goalkeeper Walter Zenga on 71 European appearances in the table, with Giacinto Facchetti and Giuseppe Baresi joint third in the standings on 73 matches each. • Marco Materazzi made his 50th appearance in UEFA club competition away to FC Spartak Moskva on Matchday 4, a mark Zlatan Ibrahimović reached in the next round of matches against Sporting. • In a squad packed with UEFA Champions League experience, two Inter players made their competition debuts in the Matchday 1 defeat at Sporting: defender Fabio Grosso and midfielder Mariano González. Marco Andreolli, meanwhile, made his second UEFA Champions League appearance in Munich. • Figo's next UEFA Champions League goal will be his 25th; the former Portuguese international has also scored 28 times in UEFA club competition as a whole, while Adriano needs one more goal for 20 in UEFA competition. • Hernán Crespo is the top scorer in UEFA competition in the Inter ranks with 36 goals in 75 games, and has struck 24 in 58 UEFA Champions League matches. • Julio Cruz is one of eleven players who have scored three goals in the first six matches, two fewer than Didier Drogba, Fernando Morientes and Kaká, who are the competition's top scorers. Patrick Vieira and Crespo were Inter's only other scorers in the group stage. Last updated 20.02.2007 14:38:30 CET www.uefa.com Page 2 FC Internazionale Milano v Valencia CF MATCH PRESS KIT • Ibrahimović has managed eight shots on goal to date, four fewer than Kaká. • Crespo has been caught offside nine times to date, eight fewer than Mohamed Tchite, who has been caught behind the last defender more than anyone else. Ibrahimović has been flagged on five occasions. • Figo has committed 13 fouls to date, eleven fewer than the most penalised player, Brandão. Dacourt has given away 12 free-kicks. • Zanetti has been fouled 13 times, eleven less than Artem Milevskiy. • Inter are the only side in the last 16 to have had three players sent off to date, although Hamburger SV also collected three red cards en route to elimination; Vieira was dismissed in Lisbon on Matchday 1 while Ibrahimović and Grosso both saw red in the first game against Bayern. Inter have also collected eleven yellow cards, three fewer than LOSC Lille Métropole, who have picked up the most bookings in the first knockout round. • Inter have had only 18 shots wide in the first six games, more only than Celtic FC who have missed the target on 16 occasions. • Inter have also won the fewest corners of the 32 teams in the first knockout round with 16. • With an average of 47 per cent possession per game, the Italian side have the lowest average percentage of the sides remaining in the competition. Inter have had 30 minutes of possession per game on average. • Inter have scored just five goals so far, the lowest of the teams in the last 16. • Adriano celebrated his 25th birthday on 17 February. • Inter won their 16th consecutive game in Serie A on Saturday, defeating Cagliari Calcio 1-0 at the Giuseppe Meazza to stretch their lead over second-placed AS Roma to 14 points. Nicolás Burdisso scored the only goal after eleven minutes, heading in a cross by Ibrahimović. • Inter's winning streak created a new record among the 'big five' leagues in Europe - Italy, England, France, Germany and Spain. FC Bayern München and Real Madrid CF previously held the record at 15. • Burdisso's goal was only the Argentinian defender's second in Serie A this season yet he is the leading scorer in the 2006/07 Coppa Italia with four strikes. • Ahead of the game against Valencia, coach Roberto Mancini rested several players with Maicon, Zanetti, Materazzi, Vieira and Adriano all left out. Brazilian striker Adriano and Zanetti were both second-half substitutes, however. • Mancini said: "We played very well in the first half, a bit less so in the second. I don't know why we did not manage to retain the same tempo.