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Inter signed Ronaldo and Vieri for world-record fees in the late 1990s, when Serie A was the envy of world football, blessed with the game’s most talented stars.

AC Milan then beat Juventus to win the Champions League in 2003, losing to Liverpool on penalties in the final two years later, before defeating the Reds to become European champions again in 2007.

While there have been more recent successes in Europe’s other competitions – Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024, Roma won the Conference League in 2021 – Jose Mourinho’s Inter were the last Italian side to win the Champions League in 2010.

Inter’s European exit comes despite being 10 points clear of rivals AC Milan in Serie A and a further four ahead of defending champions Napoli, who failed to make it out of the Champions League’s league phase.

“It is a piece of history,” said journalist Vincenzo Credendino. “Speaking about Italy and Inter, this is one of the worst pieces.

“Inter are the best in Italy, but maybe it is time to think not about what can happen in one or two years, but about 10 or 15 years – and on that side we can see generally Italian football is not on the same level of top European leagues.”

The national team must also win through a play-off in March to avoid missing out on a third successive World Cup this summer, having last lifted the trophy in 2006.

“It is a difficult time for Italian football and this shows it,” added European football expert Julien Laurens on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Today, Inter Milan put pressure on but it was not enough from them. They have been the best team in Italy for the last few years. And Napoli as well, they haven’t even come close.

“It’s terrible for Italian football at the moment.”

Inter won five of their opening eight league phase games in Europe to finish 10th, with Juventus 13th and Atalanta 15th.

Yet in the play-offs, all have come unstuck against sides who finished lower in the table but play a more intense brand of football.

“What does it say about Italian football? That something needs to be changed,” added Verri.

“The level of Italian football is poor. It is a structural issue. We play very slow football. You can ask any manager in Italy and they will all say the same.

“I was talking to Claudio Ranieri the other day and he said: ‘Look, when I was in England at Leicester… people don’t train more than in Italy. They just do it with another intensity, and then they keep up that intensity during the games.’

“We play slow, and in Europe you suffer.”

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has said the prospect of relegating their cross-city rivals is “not in his thought process at all”.

The Blades fan, who is unbeaten in his seven games against the Owls, said he disagreed with the notion that his side, who are 15th in the table, should cruise to a win.

“We’ll have done more preparation on this game than we have on any game this season and all the games other than the play-off final last season,” he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

“I’ve got complete respect for Henrik and a group of players… there’s talk of it being a mismatch or a gimme, whether it’s bookies’ odds or the narrative in the city… football just doesn’t work like that.

“The players have to play with a discipline and a control to win a game of football, to win a local derby.”

Wilder added: “We put a slide up about Macclesfield v Crystal Palace and Bodo/Glimt v Manchester City. There are all sorts of examples recently, let alone [in] the 100 years plus of football, the game isn’t decided on team sheets.

“We understand it’s basically their season on the line, we’re not daft. But we’ve got our fight, and ours has to be bigger than theirs.”

Mouat’s rink have an excellent record against Brad Jacobs’ team, and beat them in the last four of the worlds last spring.

But the Canadians knew they could improve their own chances – and inflict a little revenge – and they started strongly, opening a 3-1 lead after three ends.

The British team are considered the world’s best, though, and righted themselves. Capitalising on a slight drop off by their opponents, they took two themselves in the fourth and another two in the six to lead with four to play.

However, the clank of granite went against them in the seventh, an unfortunate bounce leaving Canada the chance of three, which they gladly took.

Mouat and his team needed to respond. They couldn’t. Instead, they gave up a steal to leave themselves with a three-point deficit with two ends to play.

It was a deficit that they could not overcome. And now, their aspirations of upgrading their silver medal from Beijing are no longer in their own hands.

GB’s women are also in a perilous position, and also must beat the United States on Wednesday (08:05), as well as Japan later in the day (18:05) and Italy on Thursday (13:05) if they are to scrape into the last four.

“People joke that I only did it because he didn’t do his homework,” says former Premier League referee Jon Moss about the time he sent off James Milner.

Twenty-four years after making his debut, Milner, 40, will equal the record for most Premier League appearances if he features for Brighton against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

A stellar career spanning more than two decades, six top-flight clubs, 652 Premier League appearances, 61 England caps, three Premier League titles, two FA Cups and one Champions League triumph has also delivered some unexpected moments.

Like the time Milner – known as ‘Millie’, external by those close to him – was sent off by Moss, his former teacher at Westbrook Lane Primary School in Horsforth, Leeds, while playing for Liverpool against Crystal Palace in 2019.

“He said I couldn’t wait to get my card out,” laughs Moss about dismissing his former pupil after switching careers.

“People say I’m the only teacher to send off one of his pupils in a Premier League game. We can both laugh about it now.”

Milner is set to go level with Gareth Barry, who played 653 times, at the top of the all-time Premier League appearance list some 8,491 days after making his debut for hometown club Leeds United soon after leaving school in 2002.

“I think that will be a special thing for him but he is focused on top of that on the ambitions from the club as well. He wants to be always successful like he was his whole life,” said Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler.

“He is a driver of this winning mentality and I think it’s very important to have these kind of players in the squad.

“They know how to win, they know what it needs to win, how you need to prepare a game, how you react in bad phases like on bad runs we have at the moment.”

Alan Shearer, who played with Milner at Newcastle, describes him as a model professional and a “manager’s dream”.

“You would do well if you had him in your squad because you knew exactly what you were going to get,” adds former England captain Shearer.

This is the story about a young lad from Leeds who evolved to set standards for hard work, professionalism and longevity – and earn respect from fans all over the world.