Long after the final whistle blew at San Siro, that welcome sound gave way to a more wondrous noise as the old ground shook and the celebrations showed no sign of abating. The curva nord was still full with ultras, belting out club anthems. That was all to serenade the extended squad, club hierarchy and their families, who were all still on the pitch. In classic celebration scenes, the children of the players were at the other end having a game among themselves. You could have been forgiven for thinking they’d won the final itself. A cynical view would be that was precisely what this was, since they eliminated their greatest rivals, and the expectation is that either Manchester City or Real Madrid will just cruise to victory in Istanbul. The defiant nature of Inter’s performance might indicate such complacency would be a mistake, but it’s still hard to deny that as much of this was just about getting there again: a victory in itself. Inter have had far longer waits to get back to the European Cup final, going 38 years between 1972 and the treble of 2010, but those periods never felt like they would be endless. Not when you could parade some of the best stars in the world, among them Ronaldo. They were always close. That hasn't been the case since 2010, especially as the elite end of the Champions League has got so much narrower. There have been times in the last few years - and never more than right now - where it has felt like the list of realistic potential champions gets smaller every season. In this campaign, it is as if that group consists of only the English clubs, as well as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and maybe Paris Saint-Germain due to Kylian Mbappe and Qatari wealth. Internazionale just wouldn’t have been included, not least because their financial scope has got smaller. It isn’t exactly a fairytale, mind. The ownership has changed twice since 2010, with ongoing questions over the current situation under Suning. That period has also seen the club overspend in a manner that now requires significant sales in the summer, not to mention European qualification itself, and has echoes of the club’s recent past. It's all been to keep up with a financial arms race constantly getting further away. As if to sum up so much, the Inter shirt doesn’t currently have a sponsor because the club say the cryptocurrency brand that previously adorned the black and white stripes did not pay them. And yet that situation, a little like this whole campaign, offered a throwback that almost came about by accident and adaptation rather than design. It’s an old-fashioned look for an old-fashioned sort of victory. The sense of history to all of that was also unmistakable. You can feel it right around the stadium and in all those celebrations. By winning this tie, Inter have reached their sixth European Cup final. That puts them just above Manchester United again. It leaves them well ahead of Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain, all of whom would see themselves as prospective challengers for this historic competition going forward. The trophy tends to follow the money, after all. That is also why, for all these complications, there is something compellingly thrilling about this. It is not to say that the truest value in sporting triumph comes when the grand old institutions win. It is more that something has gone wrong if a club like Inter - let alone 99% of the continent - can be locked out of the top level. Their previous glory does restore a prestige, though, that could be felt around the city in the hours after the game and well into the early morning. When the ultras and families finally left San Siro, it just ensured the sound of deafening firecrackers nearby. Raucous singing could now be heard all around the stadium and the city. Only a half of Milan was celebrating, but it oddly made European football feel that bit bigger again. Read More Inter Milan have already made it clear how they’ll aim to win Champions League final Budget building and back to the future tactics have Inter Milan among the elite once more Inter vs AC Milan player ratings: Lautaro Martinez and Francesco Acerbi star for Nerazzurri Dimitar Berbatov warns Harry Kane not to ‘tarnish’ Tottenham legacy by leaving Back to the future tactics have Inter Milan among the elite once more Inter Milan have already made it clear how they can win the Champions League

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NASA has held its first public meeting on the long-awaited report into UFOs. Last year, this new study was launched to investigate reports of UAP (unexplained anomalous phenomena) and for the first time the space agency has made the latest findings public. There have been around 800 events collected over the past 27 years, the expert panel says, with some reports of unexplained metallic flying orbs - all within Earth’s airspace. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Dr Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defence’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) noted on the findings: “We see these all over the world, and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers,” he said. “While we are still looking at it, I don’t have any more data other than that. Being able to come to some conclusion is going to take time, until we can get better-resolved data on similar objects that we can then do a larger analysis on." The Pentagon now receives between 50 and 100 monthly reports, Dr Kirkpatrick added, referring to a statistic from the report. Most sightings have some kind of explanation such as commercial aircraft or military drones, though there are still 2 to 5 per cent of those events which “display signatures that could be anomalous." Public Meeting on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (Official NASA Broadcast) www.youtube.com About half of these include some kind of metallic looking orbs or round spheres that have been noticed by aircraft at high altitudes. However, is this is not enough evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life, says astrophysicist and chair of the study group, David Spergel. “To make the claim that we’ve seen something that is evidence of non-human intelligence, it would require extraordinary evidence,” he added. “And we have not seen that. I think that’s important to make clear.” Meanwhile, online harassment was also a topic at the meeting as trolls have been targeting NASA’s UAP study team which Dr Nicola Fox, NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator said is "hindering scientific progress." “It is really disheartening to hear of the harassment that our panelists have faced online all because they're studying this topic," she said. “Harassment only leads to further stigmatization of the UAP field significantly hindering scientific progress and discouraging others to study this important subject matter. Harassment also obstructs the public's right to knowledge." Watch the full public meeting on NASA's YouTube channel. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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