Inter’s treble-winning defence has been elected Serie A’s strongest back-line of the last 20 years by Gazzetta dello Sport.

The paper have analysed Italian football’s greatest midfield and attacking line-ups in the past two decades and discussed defending this morning.

Maicon, Lucio, Walter Samuel and Javier Zanetti made up the Nerazzurri’s back four during the 2009-10 season under Jose Mourinho, with Cristian Chivu replacing the latter when he played in midfield.

“They won everything in one season and rewrote Inter’s history,” Gazzetta wrote.

“They had help from the rest of the team – see Samuel Eto’o playing at full-back for Mourinho – but that defence gave Julio Cesar wonderful protection.”

The paper highlighted how the quartet combined strength, pace, roughness and experience when explaining their decision.

“Having an extra attacker like Maicon at right-back was a luxury not everyone could afford,” they added.

“As for Lucio and Samuel, well, you try and get past them…”