If Real Madrid and Manchester City was the 'final' of the Champions League, then the other semi-final between the two Milan clubs was the more emotional affair.
A quite mesmeric scene greeted the players as they arrived onto the pitch at San Siro, with AC Milan the designated home team for the first-leg.
They were, however, thankful that the away goals rule was no longer in place as the tie would be virtually over ahead of Tuesday's return.
Inter were given a boost just prior to kick-off with the news that Rafael Leao would not be involved courtesy of a hamstring injury.
It took just eight minutes of play for Simone Inzaghi's side to take the lead, stunning the stadium into silence.
A corner was played into the penalty area and Edin Dzeko produced a sumptuous volley into the roof of the net to open the scoring.AC Milan then looked like collapsing with it being 2-0 within the blink of an eye.
A totally untracked run from Henrikh Mkhitaryan split the AC Milan midfield, and the Armenian forward was able to burst into the penalty area and curl a side-footed shot beyond Mike Maignan.
Things could have gotten worse for the Rossoneri in what was a disastrous first-half for the hosts.
Lautaro Martinez took advantage of a sloppy piece of defending from a throw-in and wriggled inbetween Fikayo Tomori and Simon Kjaer.
The Danish defender then looked to have brought the Argentine down and the Spanish official showed no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot.
VAR then intervened, instructing Jesus Gil Manzano to rewatch the footage.
He did just that and elected to overturn his previous call, as well as rescinding the yellow card Kjaer had been shown.Inter lost momentum after the penalty shout
It was a moment which altered the match with Inter seemingly losing a lot of their attacking momentum.
Chances were at a premium in the second-half as AC Milan tightened up defensively and searched for a route back into the tie.
Whilst a defensive aberration allowed Alessandro Bastoni to burst through for another one-on-one, he was denied by the outstretched palm if the French goalkeeper.
AC Milan were limited to half chances, not through any great defending from Inter, but rather the lack of cutting edge in attacking without Leao.
Sandro Tonali came closest, hitting the outside of Andre Onana's right-hand post with a low shot from a difficult angle.
Pobega's rasping drive forced Onana into a relatively comfortable save in injury-time.
Inter will head into the second-leg with a clear advantage, and AC Milan will need to produce a monumental evening of football if they are to contest the Champions League final in Istanbul.
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