How can I compare two lists in python and return matches

Question

I want to take two lists and find the values that appear in both.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
b = [9, 8, 7, 6, 5]

returnMatches(a, b)

would return

Answer 1

Can use itertools.product too.

>>> common_elements=[]
>>> for i in list(itertools.product(a,b)):
...     if i[0] == i[1]:
...         common_elements.append(i[0])