AC Milan 3-6 Inter (1926): The First Match at San Siro
AC Milan 3-6 Inter was the scoreline that opened the new San Siro on Sunday 19 September 1926, when Inter beat their city rivals 6-3 in a friendly staged to inaugurate the ground. AC Milan president Piero Pirelli had built the stadium for his own club, near Milan’s San Siro racecourse, yet it was Inter who christened it, in the first Milan derby ever played there.
The Derby della Madonnina opened a stadium built for the other side, a friendly that counted for nothing on paper, with San Siro’s competitive life beginning a fortnight later.
Key Facts
Snapshot of facts before you watch the documentary.
- Played on Sunday 19 September 1926 at the newly built San Siro in Milan, a friendly derby arranged to inaugurate the ground.
- Inter beat AC Milan 6-3, written home-team-first as AC Milan 3-6 Inter, the first derby played at San Siro.
- AC Milan president Piero Pirelli commissioned and financed the stadium, a project begun in 1925 and built for football alone.
- The ground took roughly 13 months to build after work started in 1925, at a cost of 5 million lire.
- The original ground had four straight stands and room for 35,000 spectators, near the San Siro racecourse in the north west of the city.
- The first competitive match at San Siro came on 3 October 1926, when Sampierdarenese beat AC Milan 2-1.
- Inter did not move in as co-tenants until the 1947-48 season, so for two decades San Siro was purely AC Milan’s home.
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The Milan Derby: AC Milan vs Inter Milan
The Derby That Opened a Stadium Built for the Other Side
Pirelli’s Ground, Built in Thirteen Months
The San Siro that opened in 1926 was one man’s project. In 1925 AC Milan president Piero Pirelli, of the tyre dynasty, commissioned a ground built for football and nothing else, a rarity in an Italy where clubs still shared athletics tracks and cycling ovals. He chose a plot in the north west of the city, beside the San Siro racecourse that gave the ground its lasting name, and pressed ahead at his own expense. Work started in 1925 and the ground was finished roughly 13 months later, at a cost of 5 million lire, producing four straight stands with room for 35,000. For its day it was a purpose-built football arena on a scale few Italian clubs could imagine.
The plan carried an obvious risk of embarrassment. Pirelli had spent a fortune to give AC Milan a home worthy of the club, and the natural way to show it off was against Inter, the neighbours born in 1908 from a split within Milan itself. A grand new ground, a full house and the city’s other team as guests made the perfect stage for the Rossoneri, and it was the guests who took the occasion.
How AC Milan 3-6 Inter Christened San Siro
On Sunday 19 September 1926 the two clubs met to inaugurate the ground, and the afternoon ran away from the hosts. The first derby at San Siro, played that day, went to the Nerazzurri 6-3. Nine goals on an opening day made for a spectacle, though the result stood as a curiosity rather than a fixture that counted. The individual scorers of those nine goals are not reliably recorded in the surviving 1926 accounts. The shape of the day is plain enough, a stadium built for AC Milan, opened by AC Milan, and won by Inter.
That symmetry is why the fixture keeps its place in Milanese folklore. The Derby della Madonnina had already been running since 1908, but staging the first meeting at the new San Siro tied the rivalry to a building that would come to define both clubs. You can trace the full arc of that split city, from the 1908 boardroom argument to the modern grudge matches, in The Milan Derby: AC Milan vs Inter Milan.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Commissioned by | Piero Pirelli, AC Milan president |
| Construction began | 1925 |
| Time to build | 13 months |
| Cost | 5 million lire |
| Original capacity | 35,000, in four straight stands |
| Inaugural match (friendly) | 19 September 1926, AC Milan 3-6 Inter |
| First competitive match | 3 October 1926, AC Milan 1-2 Sampierdarenese |
What San Siro’s First Derby Set in Motion
A Friendly, Not a League Match
For all the noise around it, the 6-3 derby was an exhibition. The two occasions were separate. The ground was inaugurated with the friendly derby that 19 September, while the first official match followed on 3 October, when Sampierdarenese beat AC Milan 2-1. So the record books open San Siro’s competitive life with a defeat as well, a fortnight after the friendly, against the Genoa club later folded into Sampdoria. The great stadium began its story with AC Milan beaten twice on its own turf, once in jest and once in earnest.
The friendly label matters. No Italian league table moved on 19 September 1926, and the scoreline stands as an exhibition result, not a Serie A one (the national round-robin that became Serie A did not arrive until 1929). Treating it as a competitive derby gets the weight of the day wrong.
From 1926 to Italian Football’s Great Stage
San Siro was built as AC Milan’s ground and stayed that way for two decades. Inter, playing across the city, only moved in as co-tenants from the 1947-48 season, turning a stadium designed for one Milan club into the shared home of both. The city of Milan had bought the ground from Pirelli’s club in 1935 and set about expanding it, the first step in the long climb from 35,000 seats to the towering triple-tiered San Siro of today, renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in 1980. The friendly derby of 1926 was where all of that started, a nine-goal afternoon on an opening day, in a stadium one president built and the other Milan club walked into much later.
READ MORE: The Milan Derby: AC Milan vs Inter Milan, the full film →
Watch the Full Documentary
The Milan Derby: AC Milan vs Inter Milan
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About AC Milan 3-6 Inter (1926)
What was the first match played at San Siro?
The first match at San Siro was a friendly Milan derby on 19 September 1926, which Inter won 6-3 against AC Milan. It was arranged purely to inaugurate the new stadium, so it carried no league points. AC Milan’s first competitive match there followed on 3 October 1926.
What was the score in AC Milan 3-6 Inter in 1926?
Inter beat AC Milan 6-3 in the friendly that opened San Siro on 19 September 1926, written home-team-first as AC Milan 3-6 Inter. It was the first derby played at the ground. Nine goals made it a memorable opening day, even though the match was only an exhibition.
Who scored in AC Milan 3-6 Inter on 19 September 1926?
The individual scorers of the nine goals in AC Milan 3-6 Inter are not reliably recorded in the surviving 1926 sources. What is certain is the result, Inter 6-3, and the occasion, the friendly that inaugurated San Siro. Contemporary Italian match reports from the 1920s are often incomplete on goalscorer detail.
When did San Siro open?
San Siro opened on Sunday 19 September 1926 with a friendly Milan derby. The inauguration came that afternoon, when Inter won 6-3. The ground had been built in around 13 months after construction began in 1925.
Who built San Siro, and why?
San Siro was built by AC Milan president Piero Pirelli, who financed a stadium dedicated entirely to football for his club. He set the project in motion in 1925, choosing a site beside the San Siro racecourse. It was conceived as AC Milan’s home, and only became Inter’s ground as well from 1947-48.
Was the 1926 San Siro derby a league match?
No. The AC Milan 3-6 Inter derby on 19 September 1926 was a friendly, arranged only to open the new stadium, so no league table was affected. Italy’s national round-robin that became Serie A did not begin until 1929. The first competitive fixture at San Siro was Sampierdarenese’s 2-1 win over AC Milan on 3 October 1926.
How much did the original San Siro cost, and how big was it?
The original San Siro cost 5 million lire and was built in about 13 months. It opened in 1926 with four straight stands holding 35,000, near the San Siro racecourse. That was a substantial purpose-built football ground for its era, before decades of expansion took it far higher.
Why did Inter open a stadium built for AC Milan?
Inter opened San Siro because AC Milan invited their city rivals for the inaugural friendly on 19 September 1926, the natural showcase fixture for a new ground. The stadium had been built for AC Milan by president Piero Pirelli, but it was Inter who won the day 6-3. Inter would not become co-tenants of San Siro until the 1947-48 season.
When did Inter start playing at San Siro?
Inter became co-tenants of San Siro from the 1947-48 season. For the first two decades after the 1926 opening, the ground was solely AC Milan’s home. Since then both Milan clubs have shared the stadium, playing the Derby della Madonnina there as the home fixture of whichever side is nominally hosting.
What is the San Siro called now?
San Siro was officially renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in 1980, after the forward who starred for both Inter and AC Milan. Many supporters and broadcasters still call it San Siro, after the district it sits in. It is the same site that opened with the 6-3 friendly derby on 19 September 1926, though hugely expanded since.
What was the first competitive match at San Siro?
The first competitive match at San Siro was Sampierdarenese’s 2-1 win over AC Milan on 3 October 1926. It came a fortnight after the 6-3 friendly derby that inaugurated the ground. The stadium therefore began both its exhibition and its competitive life with an AC Milan loss.
Why does AC Milan 3-6 Inter in 1926 still matter?
AC Milan 3-6 Inter in 1926 matters because it opened San Siro, the stadium that became the shared home of Italian football’s biggest derby. The friendly tied the Derby della Madonnina to a ground one president built for one club, and which the other Milan side later joined. That opening-day quirk, Inter winning in AC Milan’s new house, has kept the fixture in the city’s folklore.
AC Milan 3-6 Inter (1926)
A stadium built by one president for one club, opened with a nine-goal derby the other side won 6-3. San Siro’s first afternoon, on 19 September 1926, set the Derby della Madonnina inside the building that now defines it. For more days that started something, keep exploring our On This Day series, and dig into more of football’s fiercest rivalries.
Sources: AC Milan, Inter, FirstOnline, StadiumDB.
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The Milan Derby: AC Milan vs Inter Milan
