When Inter Milan hosted Atalanta for one of their final games of the 2000/01 season at San Siro, they were sat fifth in Serie A and chasing Champions League qualification.
Pre-match, though, a curious trophy appeared in the Curva Nord: a moped, belonging – so the tale goes – to the opposing capo and captured in a scuffle prior to kick-off outside the ground.
It was beaten, burned and dumped over the railings in the second tier of San Siro. They would never have managed it, had it not been for the stairless access provided by the stadium’s exterior ramps and, of course, the clearly rigorous security checks officials at the ground carried out.
Fortunately, the section of the lower stand the bike was tossed onto was empty, meaning no one was hurt. With the intention of making the moped interrupt proceedings on the pitch, the Inter fans instead had to watch it burn and crash in the unhabituated section of stand.
The club subsequently banned the four perpetrators for life.
Nowhere else in the world would this legendary terrace jape (or act of hooliganism comprising theft, arson and criminal damage, depending on your viewpoint) have been possible.
Despite the pre-match incident, Inter actually beat Atalanta 3-0, with Christian Vieri bagging a brace and Alvaro Recoba adding a third. While a convincing win, it did little for Inter's push for the Champions League, with Parma eventually finishing five points ahead of them in fourth.
City rivals and fellow San Siro occupiers AC Milan did finish a place behind Inter, though, with both sides having to settle for the UEFA Cup in the next season.
As a result of the moped incident, Inter were ordered to play two Serie A home matches on neutral turf - though this did little to calm matters at the club at the time, because just a week later Milan beat them 6-0, in one of the most iconic games played at San Siro in its near-100-year history.
