AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso admitted today that he thought arch rivals Inter were heading for defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Inter scraped through on away goals after coming back from a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2 in Germany following a 1-0 defeat in the home leg.

The controversial 33-year-old, who earlier this season in the competition head-butted 59-year-old Tottenham assistant coach Joe Jordan, could not resist stirring things up just a couple of weeks ahead of the crucial table-topping Milan derby.

Milan head Inter by five points at the Serie A summit although both sides were held to surprise draws against the bottom two last weekend.

And now Gattuso admits he's been hoping for Inter to fail also in Europe and follow his own team out of the competition -- they were eliminated by Tottenham last week.

"At 2-1 I thought they were going to concede another three or four goals," he told Radio Monte Carlo.

"That's the way things were going but you could also see that Bayern's defence left a lot to be desired."

However, Gattuso did claim that Inter's victory proved that talk of the demise of Italian football was more than just a little premature.

"The fact that Inter qualified for the next round shows that the Italian league is not as bad has been claimed," he added.