{"id":65704,"date":"2026-08-05T11:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65704\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:57:14","slug":"calcio-italiano-ac-milan-and-inter-milan-fans-bring-european-football-atmosphere-to-burswood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65704\/","title":{"rendered":"Calcio Italiano: AC Milan and Inter Milan fans bring European football atmosphere to Burswood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Two of the world game\u2019s biggest clubs have brought an authentic European football atmosphere to Perth as AC Milan and Inter Milan brought a taste of Italy down under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Calcio Italiano, Perth\u2019s festival of Italian football, opens on Wednesday night with a blockbuster, rare \u2018Derby della Madonnina\u2019 outside of Italy as footballing superpowers Inter and AC Milan\u2019s storied, century-old rivalry came to Australia for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">And while all the focus in the lead-up was on the stars on-pitch, like Milan\u2019s legendary Croatian midfielder Luka Modric and Inter\u2019s engine room generals Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Hakan Calhanoglu, those off-pitch did themselves proud.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5d521ead66fce76c00e9fda521bd7e90d1bf4926.jpg\" alt=\"Inter fans walk to Optus stadium ahead of the match between AC Milan and Inter. Picture: Justin Benson-Cooper\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconInter fans walk to Optus stadium ahead of the match between AC Milan and Inter. Justin Benson-Cooper Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper\/The West Australian<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The State Government announced less than 2000 tickets were left before kick-off, and there is plenty more to come, with Italy\u2019s most successful team \u2014 Juventus \u2014 arriving in Perth on Thursday ahead of their matches against Inter on Saturday and Palermo on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Supporters assembled at their team-assigned hubs well before kick-off, with Rossoneri (AC Milan) fans pitching up at the Merrywell, while Nerazurri (Inter) rubbed shoulders with club legends Christian Vieri and Javier Zanetti in Brookfield Place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Closer to the Burswood peninsula, Optus Stadium\u2019s surrounds became a hive of activity even three hours before kick-off as fans poured in post-work and school pick-up.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/73264c5394a3d1fbc15a19104ee69a16861e48ec.jpg\" alt=\"AC Milan fans gather at the Merriwell at Crown ahead of the match between AC Milan and Inter at Optus Stadium Picture: Justin Benson-Cooper\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconAC Milan fans gather at the Merriwell at Crown ahead of the match between AC Milan and Inter at Optus Stadium Justin Benson-Cooper Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper\/The West Australian<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Punters clogged the arteries around the heart of the precinct as football fans piled onto the northern oval \u2014 normally reserved for staff parking \u2014 in the hours leading up to kick-off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">As the game neared, the stadium precinct increasingly turned black, red and blue as fans made their way towards the venue as the air hung heavy with the unmistakable scent and billowing smoke of flares.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Inter Milan approached from across the river, turning the Matagarup Bridge into a runway as they filled the air with their voices and drums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Their bitter rivals approached from Burswood way and in vast numbers, as the pavement similarly overflowed with banners and noise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the world game\u2019s biggest clubs have brought an authentic European football atmosphere to Perth as AC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[335,79,261],"class_list":["post-65704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-perth","tag-soccer","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}