At the weekend Inter midfielder Wesley Sneijder urged his team to carry on chasing the dream of a historic treble. After round 34 of Serie A was completed, the Nerazzurri slipped back to second in the league table, but they are in the final of the Coppa Italia and take onBarcelona in the first leg of the Champions League sem-final.

Inter’s progress to the last four of Europe’s top tier club competition has been far from easy. They struggled in the group stages and actually played like an away side against Barcelona at San Siro. However, since the start of the knockout stages Jose Mourinho’s side have been hugely impressive, and after convincingly defeatingChelsea in the last 16, they got the better of CSKA Moscow over two legs in the quarter-finals.

Inter’s Champions League foray has taken a toll on their league campaign but the Beneamata still have a good chance of winning the Scudetto. However, club supremoMassimo Moratti will be keen to see his side progress to the Champions League final and for that to happen the Italian champions will have to get a result on Tuesday night.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho will also become the first coach, along with Bayern Munichtrainer Louis Van Gaal, to guide teams to Champions League semi-finals at three different clubs, following his achievements with Porto and Chelsea.

The last time Barcelona came to Milan they played like the home side and were held to a 0-0 draw by Inter. That was in the group stage of the Champions League earlier this campaign. In the return fixture, the Blaugrana taught the Italian champions a footballing lesson as they defeated them 2-0 at Camp Nou in a game that exposed the greatness of the Catalans and the (then) weaknesses of the Italians.

Since then Barcelona have gone from strength to strength and Lionel Messi’s imperious performance against Arsenal in the second leg of the quarter-final tie at Camp Nou was hailed in many quarters as the best individual performance in Europe since the turn of the century.

However, Pep Guardiola’s side failed to score on Saturday evening in the Primera Division in Spain. Espanyol clogged the midfield with bodies and thwarted the all-consuming, all-conquering Barca side from scoring. This might suggest that the reigning Spanish and European champions cannot score in all games, but one must remember that the Blaugrana have some of the world’s best players.

Coach Guardiola will be wary that Inter have improved massively in Europe since the last time the two sides met and that with Andres Iniesta absent he might have to change his tactics a bit.

Sir Alex Ferguson will leave Manchester United after next season and Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho will be the one that replaces him.

The Scotland native could end his legendary managerial run at Old Trafford after what would be his 25th season with United.

Ferguson, who will turn 69 in December, took the United job in November of 1986 and has enjoyed immense success, winning 11 Premier League titles and theChampions League twice during his time with the Red Devils.

With Ferguson set to step down United have already lined up a successor in Mourinho, according to the Daily Star.

The former Chelsea manager led Inter to a Serie A title last year and into the semi-finals of the Champions League so far this year, but the Portuguese has been yearning to return to the Premier League.

Ferguson and his United squad currently sit one point behind Chelsea with four games remaining. Should the Red Devils win another Premier League title this season it would mark Ferguson’s 12th with the club and his 19th trophy overall.