Inter Milan drawn into Group B of Champions League

Inter Milan will face FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and PSV Eindhoven in Group B of the Champions League following today’s draw in Monaco.

It certainly isn’t the greatest draw for the Nerazzurri, but it could have been a lot worse.

“We are in a difficult group; we were not expecting it to be so difficult, but we will have all the time we need to prepare every game in the best possible way,” said Inter Vice President Javier Zanetti, as quoted by UEFA’s website. “Barcelona are not all about Messi: they have plenty of players who can change a game all in a sudden just with a piece of skill. Facing teams like this, however, can only help us to improve and raise our standards.”

Here is a look at the group stage draw:

Champions League groups

Group A

• Atletico Madrid
• Borussia Dortmund
• Monaco
• Club Brugge

Group B

• FC Barcelona
• Tottenham Hotspur
• PSV Eindhoven
• Internazionale Milano

Group C

• Paris-Saint Germain
• Napoli
• Liverpool
• Crvena Zvezda

Group D

• Lokomotiv Moscow
• FC Porto
• Schalke
• Galatasaray

Group E

• Bayern Munich
• Benfica
• Ajax
• AEK

Group F

• Manchester City
• Shakhtar Donesk
• Lyon
• Hoffenheim

Group G

• Real Madrid
• AS Roma
• CSKA Moscow
• Plzen

Group H

• Juventus
• Manchester United
• Valencia
• Young Boys

The last time Inter faced Barcelona in the Champions League was in the 2009-10 season when they drew 0-0 in the first match and lost 2-1 in the second but managed to finish second in the group. They went on to face Barcelona again in the semifinals where they won the first match 3-1 but lost the second 1-0 and managed to advance where they defeated Bayern Munich 2-0 in the finals — the last time Inter won the Champions League.

Inter faced Barcelona in the second group stage of the 2002-03 tournament and drew the first match 0-0 and lost the second 3-0 but still finished second in the group and reached the semifinals.

They drew in the same group with Tottenham Hotspur in 2010-11 where they won the first match 4-3 and lost the second 3-1 — thanks to a Gareth Bale hat trick — but still finished second in the group and reached the quarterfinals. Tottenham also defeated Inter in the 2012-12 Europa League tournament in the group stage.

Their last matchup with PSV in the Champions League was during the 2007-08 tournament where they defeated the Dutch side 2-0 and 1-0 and finished first in the group that season. It is the only time they have faced PSV in the tournament.

This marks the first trip to the Champions League for Inter in six seasons. They have managed to make it out of the group stage in every Champions League tournament since 1998-99.

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