Inter v Benfica: Champions League quarter-final, second leg – live

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Lovely flag.

The teams are in the tunnel! So are the match officials. Football is not far away now.

Michael Owen and Peter Crouch are indulging in some touch-screen analysis in the BT Sport studios as we build up to kick-off. I have to admit, I am not really listening.

Here is Paul Wilson’s match report from Madrid 2010, when Inter defeated Bayern Munich in the final to lift the Champions League. Was that team a well-drilled defensive unit, or what? Pure Mourinho.

Sticking with Valencia for a moment, I’ve always wanted to go to the Mestalla. They’ve been talking about knocking it down for years but (thankfully) there seems to be little progress on that front.

I’ve been to San Siro, years ago, but never for a match – just for the tour. Which was nice.

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend Atalanta v Udinese and Juventus v Freiburg in the space of a week. Incidentally, the two tickets were about 70euro combined.

Textbook pre-match content from Inter’s English Twitter:

“A couple of Valencia connections tonight,” emails Harriet Osborn. “Just think what could have been if Guedes weren’t languishing on the Benfica bench, dumped by struggling Wolves, but partnering Cavani at the front of Valencia’s attack ...”

As the panic sets in and Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali work out how to repair the damage they have caused during the past year, the biggest mistake Chelsea’s beleaguered owners could make would be to kid themselves that a season of astonishing excess and underachievement is not their fault.

D’oh! It was 2-0 last week, of course. Anyway, if you’d like to get in touch with me, either to point out an error, talk about tonight’s match, or simply to say hello, you can email or tweet.

Here’s the match report from last week – Benfica 0-2 Inter, that is.

Chelsea, now officially downgraded from crisis club to comedy club, may well hire the Bayern Munich reject, Julian Nagelsmann. Jacob Steinberg reports:

Over on Channel 1, Scott Murray’s got Bayern Munich v Manchester City:

Daniel Gallan, meanwhile, is blogging the WSL encounter between Manchester United and “The” Arsenal right here:

Keep it locked here for Inter v Benfica though, obviously.

Tonight’s referee is Carlos del Cerro Grande – incidentally the man on the whistle in Valencia’s weekend defeat by Sevilla at Mestalla, that kept that once mighty club firmly in the bottom three, and staring down the barrel of relegation. Here’s Sid Lowe:

The good news for Benfica – as well as for us neutrals hoping to see an exciting conclusion to this two-legged tie – is that Inter have been rubbish at home lately. They’ve lost their last three league matches at San Siro and have failed to score a goal in those games, too. Most recently they lost 1-0 to Monza, on Saturday. They are languishing in fifth place in Serie A, 24 points behind the leaders Napoli.

Teams

The Nerazzurri are unchanged from the first leg, that took place eight days ago, while there is one change for Benfica, with the former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi coming into the starting side for Morato, who is on the bench.

Internazionale: Onana, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Brozovic, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Martinez, Dzeko. Substitutes: Handanovic, Gagliardini, de Vrij, Gosens, Correa, Bellanova, Asllani, Calhanoglu, Cordaz, D’Ambrosio, Carboni, Lukaku.

Benfica: Vlachodimos, Gilberto, Silva, Otamendi, Grimaldo, Florentino, Chiquinho, Rafa Silva, Joao Mario, Aursnes, Goncalo Ramos. Substitutes: Lucas Verissimo, Neres, Goncalo Guedes, Tengstedt, Schjelderup, Ristic, Soares, Musa, Ndour, Gomes, Neves, Morato.

Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain)

Preamble

What are the chances of Benfica overturning last week’s 2-0 home defeat by Internazionale in tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg? Not very high, but they probably harbour more hope than Chelsea did of turning around the same scoreline against Real Madrid last night.

Inter, perhaps, have a little more motivation than they normally would, knowing that progress tonight sets up a semi-final against their city rivals, Milan, who were superb in attack and defence as they knocked out Serie A leaders, Napoli, 2-1 on aggregate last night.

A Milanese last-four clash is certainly a mouthwatering prospect, but that said, it feels like this season’s competition has been a bit light on drama. For the neutrals among us, could this be the night that the competition bursts into life? Team news and much more besides coming up.

Kick-off: 8pm BST