SÃO PAULO, Brazil - For 23 years, their inability to win the Copa Libertadores has left Internacional fans at the mercy of their city rivals Gremio. Gremio won the Libertadores in 1983 and 1995 and their supporters have never let their rivals forget that for all their history and other triumphs they were never quite good enough to win South America's top footballing honour.
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Those local bragging rights look like they are about to end.
On Wednesday night at their home ground in Porto Alegre, Internacional take on Sao Paulo in the second leg of this year's Libertadores final. Although Sao Paulo are the reigning champions and sit proudly at the top of the Brazilian First Division, Inter won the first match 2-1 and are favourites to get at least the draw that would make the much awaited title theirs.
A win for Inter would be a fitting triumph for one of the tournament's outstanding sides. The team known as the Colorado because of their crimson coloured shirts have lost just one of their 13 games in the tournament so far - away to Ecuadoran champs LDU in the quarter-final - and have rivalled Sao Paulo as the most consistent side in the competition.
Both teams are on top form and their meeting, the second all-Brazilian final in a row, will go some way to reestablishing faith in the game after the international side failed to live up to expectations in the World Cup Finals in Germany.
If Wednesday's game is half as good as the first leg at the Morumbi a week ago then it will be a cracking match. That game was a great advert for determined, attacking football and could easily have gone either way.
Inter drew first blood when Sao Paulo's influential midfielder Josue was sent off for elbowing Rafeal Sobis in the ninth minute but they could not make their numerical superiority count and things were levelled when Inter's Fabinho was shown a red card after a childish slap on Souza.
The reduction in numbers seemed to give both sides more space to play and the second half was a pulsating affair. Rafael Sobis put Inter one-nil up after 53 minutes and then added a second eight minutes later. Sao Paulo piled on the pressure in front of a fanatical home crowd but could only grab one goal back through Edcarlos with a quarter of an hour to go.
Sao Paulo will struggle to do the business at the Beira Rio stadium in Porto Alegre and not just because Inter have kept clean sheets in five of their six home matches so far. The holders are without Fabinho, who is suspended, and face a passionate home crowd who have vowed to do all they can - including launching nightime fireworks displays outside the hotel where Sao Paulo will be based - to get their revenge on those who stoned the Inter bus as it arrived at the Morumbi for the first game last Wednesday.
On the positive side, Sao Paulo have a wealth of experience in their ranks and seem likely to have international striker Ricardo Oliveira available for selection. Oliveira was loaned to his former club by Real Betis but the loan deal expired at the weekend and Sao Paulo have appealed to Conmebol, the South American Football Confederation, to get a permit for him to play.
Oliveira seems likely to take his place in the starting line up and Sao Paulo will need him to be firing on all cylinders because everything suggests Inter will score. The Gauchos have hit the net 21 times since they got their campaign under way in February, with an impressive 11 different players getting their names on the scoresheet.
However, although that statistic suggests Inter's goal threats can come from anywhere, the man Sao Paulo will be watching is 19-year old Sobis, the dynamic little striker who could be Brazil's next big export to Europe.
Fast, quick thinking and capable of both scoring and creating, Sobis was the key man for Inter in the first leg, scoring twice and almost getting a third before coming off with a thigh strain. Sobis is an Inter fan who played for the team's junior side before rising through the ranks to the first team and he is aware what the triumph would mean.
However, he, like the other Inter players, have been quick to stress they cannot treat a team as talented and experienced as Sao Paulo with anything other than the utmost respect and they have promised to start the game as if only a win was enough for them to take the trophy.
'Sao Paulo are powerful and they can play when the pressure is on,' Sobis told Inter's web site. 'We are going to be on our toes so that they don't surprise us.'
The surprise would be if Sobis and Inter passed up the chance to finally lay their Libertadores hoodoo. They have got to the final before and faltered. They might never have a better opportunity than this.
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