SAINTS tonight step out into one of the great European sporting cathedrals – the San Siro.

A Europa League tie against former European champions Inter Milan promises to be one of the highlights of Saints’ 2016/17 campaign.

Here, the Daily Echo turns the spotlight on the stadium and provides some other Inter facts.

The San Siro stadium was first used in September, 1926 when Inter Milan (nicknamed The Azzurri) beat AC Milan 6-3.

The stadium had taken 13 months to build and was privately built by funding from AC Milan’s president at the time, Piero Pirelli.

Piero was one of the children of Giovanni Pirelli, who in 1872 had founded the Pirelli rubber company which grew to employ 55,00 people across Europe.

Because it was privately funded, the San Siro was not built with an athletics track around the pitch, which was common at publicly-funded football grounds.

The stadium was owned by AC Milan until it was sold to the city council in 1935.

To start with, only AC Milan used the ground – Inter played at the Arena Civica before moving in with their arch rivals in 1947.

The San Siro is one of the largest sporting stadiums in Europe in terms of capacity.

It can hold 81,277 – just a few more than Real Madrid’s Bernabeu (81,044).

The only bigger football grounds are Barcelona’s Nou Camp (99,354), Wembley (90,000), the Stade de France (81,338) and Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion (81,359).

Non football grounds with a larger capacity are Dublin’s Croke Park (82,300) and Twickenham (82,000).

The ground is unlikely to even be remotely half full tonight. Inter are only averaging around 40,000 at the San Siro for their Serie A games this term, apart from Juventus which attracted more than 76,000. For their Europa League clash with Hapoel Be’er Sheva, there were fewer than 17,000 in the ground.

The San Siro first staged the European Cup final in 1965, when Inter won on home soil.

It also staged UEFA’s showpiece occasion five years later, when Feyenoord beat Celtic 2-1 in extra time. with Swedish striker Ove Kindvall netting a 116th minute extra time winner.

In the 20th century, two Champions League finals have taken place at the stadium. In 2001, Bayern Munich beat Valencia on penalties and earlier this year Real Madrid won their 11th European title with a penalty shoot-out win over cross city rivals Atletico Madrid.

 The stadium is officially named after Giuseppe Meazza, who helped Italy win the World Cup in 1934 and 1938.

Meazza is one of Inter’s most famous players, scoring almost 250 goals for the club in 365 games between 1927 and 1940.

He won the player of the tournament award at the 1934 World Cup, and briefly played for AC Milan in the 1940s.

Meazza scored 33 goals for his country in 55 appearances, and remains Italy’s second highest ever international scorer (after Luiga Riva).

The San Siro hosted three games at the 1980 European Championships and also staged the opening game of the World Cup ten years later when Cameroon shocked holders Argentina despite having two men sent off.

The ground also staged five games in Italia 90, all featuring winners West Germany.

Ahead of Italia 90, the San Siro underwent major renovation work.

It became an all-seated venue as an extra tier was added to three sides of the stadium, with 11 concrete towers built around the outside of the stadium.

Four of these concrete towers were being located at the corners to support a new roof featuring distinctive, protruding red girders.

he San Siro has often staged music concerts. Bob Marley was the first to play there, in June 1980, in front of an Italian record concert-going audience of 120,000.T

At the time it was a European audience record for a music concert in an enclosed venue.

Four years later, Bob Dylan became the second singer to play at the San Siro and he was followed by the likes of Genesis, Paul Young, Duran Duran, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Coldplay, Muse, Bon Jovi and One Direction.

l The Sani Siro has staged one rugby union international – Italy losing 20-6 to New Zealand in 2009 in front of 80,000, a record crowd for a rugby union game in Italy.

Inter’s derby with AC is known in Italy as the ‘derby della Madonnina’.

The name refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose statue atop the Milan Cathedral is one of the city’s main attractions.

In 2004/05, a Champions League quarter final tie between Inter and AC was abandoned after a flare thrown by an Inter fan struck AC keeper Dida.

AC were winning 1-0 at the time in what was Inter’s home tie - AC having won the first leg 2-0 - when the Brazilian keeper was hit on the shoulder by a burning flare.

Referee Markus Merk stopped the game and took the players off the field. When he eventually brought them back, he abandoned the game a minute after he had restarted it as Inter fans continued to throw flares into the AC penalty area.

UEFA awarded AC Milan a 3–0 win - a 5–0 aggregate success, therefore - and ordered Intern to play their next four European games behind closed doors.