Jonathan Liew was at San Siro tonight, and his verdict has landed. Here it is! Congratulations to Inter, commiserations to Barcelona, here’s to both teams for serving up such wonderful entertainment, and thanks to you for reading this MBM.
Hansi Flick’s verdict: “I’m very disappointed that we’re out … I’m not disappointed about the performance of my team … they tried everything … in the second half we were really good … I don’t want to speak about the referee but every 50-50 decision was for them … in the end it was like that and that’s what made me a bit sad.”
Way back in the mists of time, VAR had a look at a potential red card in the immediate wake of Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s penalty. Turns out that was because Iñigo Martínez appeared to spit in the direction of Francesco Acerbi. Nothing clear and obvious it would seem to have been decided, but after such an epic tie … well, if that’s the case, what a shame. Let us hope the incident looks worse than it actually was.
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Barcelona defender Eric García talks to Amazon. “First half, going 2-0 down was tough … our reaction in the second half was amazing … we had chances to close the game … it’s a shame … we need to be proud of what we did … for me the first penalty was never a penalty … I was really close … then the equaliser for 3-3 you always whistle a foul … but you have to get going … we have to be proud of this season … nobody believed in us … Yann Sommer did some amazing saves … if we look at the game we have been the better team … they are really effective when they have chances … they scored and that’s something we need to look at in the future.”
Inter keeper Yann Sommer, who made 14 saves over the two legs and has been named tonight’s player of the match, speaks to Amazon Prime. “It was a crazy game … I am really proud of this team … we were already out … then we came back … amazing … you don’t have a lot of chances to go to a final … we knew the last four minutes of extra time, this is our last chance … we put everything on the pitch … we are very happy and I am looking forward to the final … everything was on our side, then changed on their side … we came back, they came back … we did really well as a team … we put a lot of things together … [the save from Lamine Yamal] gave us energy … PSG and Arsenal are both good teams … we enjoy this win tonight and it is easy tomorrow night from the couch … we will see.”
Inter’s captain and first-half force-of-nature Lautaro Martínez speaks to Amazon Prime. “Incredible … I’m so happy … so proud … so grateful to fans and family … I wasn’t in a great place … not 100 percent … the medical staff worked so hard to help me to play today … anything is possible … we’ll do what we can … there is just one more step to go … we will do all we can to get Inter to the summit of European football.”
Hats off to Lamine Yamal, 17, who somewhere in the multiverse is tonight’s match-clinching hero. But in the real world it didn’t work out like that for him. His dreams may be crushed, in outrageously dramatic style, but here he is, respectfully watching Inter as they celebrate. Many older men have, in times gone by, thrown a tanty or flounced. Speaking of older men, Kári Tulinius offers: “Of all the ludicrous moments in this tie, I fear not enough will be made of Francesco Acerbi, a 37-year-old centre-back tearing up the field to equalise at the death, all the while moving with the ease and grace of a 37-year-old centre-back.”
The match-winner Davide Frattesi jigs around in delight! He’s not joined in that by too many of his team-mates, though, because to a man Inter are so exhausted, all they can do is drop to the floor in mellow bliss. By contrast, Barcelona, who contributed so much to this instant classic, are both drained and disbelieving. Poor young Lamine Yamal with a thousand-yard stare. He was the width of a post away from securing his side’s place in the final … but then Francesco Acerbi salvaged Inter’s hopes and dreams. Such a shame there has to be a loser, but that’s top-level sport for you, and while the margins are slim, it’s hard to argue against Inter deserving their victory over the entire piece. Barcelona were brilliant; Inter have been simply magnificent. A fourth European Cup for the Nerazzurri is merely a match away; Barca will have to wait for number six.
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EXTRA TIME, FULL TIME: Internazionale 4-3 Barcelona (agg 7-6)
Internazionale win an epic by the odd goal in 13! They’ll play either PSG or Arsenal in the Munich final!
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ET 30 min +1: Lopez heads into the Inter box from the left. Araujo tries to poke home at the near post but only manages to clip De Vrij. A pressure-releasing foul, and Inter are so close now!
ET 30 min: There will be two additional minutes. Can Inter hang on? Can Barca save themselves at the death, just as Inter did earlier on?
ET 29 min: Yamal is trying everything. He tears in from the right and shoots. Deflected. Over. Raphinha whips the corner under the bar. Sommer tips the ball over it. Raphinha’s second corner is half-cleared, then returned into the mixer, but Lewandowski can’t control.
ET 28 min: Yamal jinks in from the right and is hauled back by Bastoni, who goes into the book.
ET 27 min: Frattesi grooves down the right and draws a foul from Raphinha. Barcelona now getting a bit desperate. Inter not rushing to restart.
ET 26 min: Inter sitting deep now. What they have, they want to keep. Barcelona continue to probe. Yamal has another whack, this time from a tight angle down the inside-right channel. Sommer parries strongly again, and though the ball balloons up towards Lewandowski, the big man can’t keep his header down and it loops over the bar. That was far from easy.
ET 24 min: Lewandowski spins into space in the centre circle and sprays a pass wide right for Yamal, who enters the box at pace and whips a stunner towards the top-left corner. It’s heading in, but Sommer extends a telescopic arm to fingertip around the post. That’s a sensational save. Nothing comes of the corner. First he hit the post before the Inter equaliser, now this; Yamal must wonder how how he’s not scored tonight.
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ET 23 min: Raphinha’s loose touch in midfield gifts Zieliński the opportunity to launch a counter … but a heavy touch hands the ball straight back to Barcelona. The tension palpable.
ET 22 min: For the first time this evening, Barcelona look a little bereft of ideas. There’s no way through the Inter back line, and Fort eventually skelps a wild cross out of play.
ET 21 min: The rain is still coming down in stair rods. Simone Inzaghi’s suit is absolutely saturated, possibly ruined. If his team hang on, he will care not one jot.
ET 20 min: Yamal sends a cross out of play from the right. Sommer isn’t busting a gut to get to retrieve the ball.
ET 19 min: The ball breaks to Frattesi on the edge of the Barca box. He opens his body and aims powerfully for the bottom left. Szczęsny saves well, because that was flying in. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
ET 18 min: Dumfries, who has been exceptional in this tie from the get-go last week, has run his race. He’s replaced by De Vrij, having put in one of the all-time shifts.
ET 17 min: Yamal jinks his way down the right and reaches the byline, before wedging into the six-yard box. Sommer flaps and misses. Lewandowski meets the ball six yards out, but can’t keep his header down. Over the bar. A good chance spurned.
ET 16 min: Gavi’s immediately into the action, nearly worming his way into the Inter box down the middle. But Darmian comes across to hack clear.
Barcelona replace Cubarsi and Pedri with Gavi and the already-booked Pau Victor … then get the second period of extra time underway.
EXTRA TIME, HALF TIME: Internazionale 4-3 Barcelona (agg 7-6)
The whistle goes for the break. Inter aren’t happy, because Taremi thought he was scuttling clear down the inside-left channel, only for the referee to put an end to proceedings. Simone Inzaghi far from happy, and it takes a couple of his players to talk him out of engaging the referee in a short conversation.
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ET 15 min +3: The free kick’s launched long for Dumfries, who briefly causes some bother down the right wing but can’t find a team-mate.
ET 15 min +2: Thuram draws a foul from Araujo out on the left. They don’t rush to take the free kick. Everyone eventually hangs around the edge of the Barca box.
ET 15 min +1: Yamal swings a cross in from the right, hoping to find the head of Lewandowski. But it’s an easy pluck for Sommer.
ET 15 min: There will be three additional minutes to this first period of extra time.
ET 14 min: Fort has a whack from distance. Full marks for ambition if nothing else.
ET 13 min: Frattesi is good to continue. Meanwhile, as if this epic isn’t widescreen enough, the heavens open to deposit biblical quantities of rain on San Siro.
ET 12 min: Frattesi goes down and requires some treatment. A rare pause in play. We’ve hardly stopped all evening!
ET 10 min: In the dugout, Hansi Flick, arms tightly crossed, slips into a deep, quiet funk. He must have been dreaming of a return to Munich for the final. Within touching distance. But now so far away.
GOAL! Internazionale 4-3 Barcelona (Frattesi 99); agg 7-6
Thuram causes Barca all sorts of bother down the right. He reaches the byline by spinning his man, then cuts back for Taremi, who cushions the ball into the path of Frattesi. One touch, then a fierce whip around Szczęsny and into the left-hand side of the net! Bedlam! Inter were down and out, but now look! San Siro takes off for the moon!
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ET 8 min: Garcia is replaced by 18-year-old defender Héctor Fort.
ET 6 min: Yamal’s crossfield pass finds Martin in space down the left … but the resulting cross isn’t of early-second-half standard. Inter clear their lines.
ET 4 min: Thuram probes down the right but can’t work space to shoot. Inter win a throw, though, and Darmian flings it into the mixer. De Jong hoicks it clear. A slightly scrappy start to extra time, but after the entertainment these lads have served up, we’ll forgive them anything.
ET 3 min: Some behaviour-infused admin. When Hansi Flick was booked for effing and jeffing, so too was as-yet-unused sub Pau Victor.
ET 2 min: The free kick is no good.
ET 1 min: Yamal goes on another power wander down the right. He’s crudely blocked by Augusto, who goes into the book. Free kick for Barca. Raphinha – who must have thought he was the match-winner - to take.
Inter get the first period of extra time underway. No changes. “If anyone’s interested, and frankly who would wouldn’t be, Ayr United won the first leg of their play off quarter final against Partick Thistle 1-0,” reports Simon McMahon.
This has been an amazing, astonishing, astounding … well, we could work our way through the entire alphabet. But suffice to say this is one of the truly great Champions League semi-finals. Lamine Yamal was inches away from wrapping this up for Barcelona, but his late shot hit the base of the right-hand post. Inter went straight up the other end, Denzel Dumfries – arguably the player of the entire tie overall – set up Francesco Acerbi to score a barely believable screamer. At 37, Acerbi is the the second-oldest scorer in Champions League knockout history, after Ryan Giggs.
FULL TIME: Internazionale 3-3 Barcelona (agg 6-6)
It was never going to be any other way.
90 min +6: Raphinha drops deep and quarterbacks a wonderful pass down the inside-right channel to release Yamal, who enters the box … but under pressure from Augusto, slaps his shot straight at Sommer! We’re going to extra time!
90 min +5: Acerbi is booked for taking his shirt off in celebration. Then the Barca boss Hansi Flick sees yellow for telling it as he sees it. Barca wanted a free kick for Dumfries’s stripping of Martin. Nope!
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GOAL! Internazionale 3-3 Barcelona (Acerbi 90+3); agg 6-6
Yamal just hit the woodwork. You know what’s coming next. Dumfries strips Martin of the ball, just to the right of the Barca box, and advances down the right. He cuts back for Acerbi, who roofs a first-time shot into the top-right corner! Szczęsny no chance! Spectacular!
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90 min +2: Barella can’t beat the first man. But the clearance flies out on the left, and Bastoni can fling long into the box. He does so … but Barca break upfield again, and Yamal pings a low drive off the base of the right-hand upright and away!
90 min +1: A free kick for Inter out on the right flank. Barella to loop it into the box.
90 min: Lewandowski comes on for Torres. Barcelona are five additional minutes away from the final!
89 min: Inter are stunned, but they need to react, and quick. Frattesi tries to worm his way into space down the right but is crowded out.
GOAL! Internazionale 2-3 Barcelona (Raphinha 87); agg 5-6
Inter ship possession yet again. And how costly is this. Pedri slips a ball down the inside-left channel for Raphinha, who enters the box and pelts a fierce drive towards goal. Sommer parries well, but the ball breaks back to Raphinha, who has another whack. He pearls it across the keeper and into the bottom right. Torres, lurking at the far stick, does well to jump out of the road, to avoid a deflection that would have rendered the goal offside. What a strike, though!
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87 min: Thuram chases after a simple long blooter down the middle of the park. He’s onside, but Szczęsny is on point, racing out of his box to whack clear. And what an intervention, because …
85 min: Martin’s loose ball is pounced on by Darmian, who releases Dumfries down the right. A low cross is hacked clear, then the flag goes up for offside. Inter have improved a little in the last few minutes, but it’s been a low bar.
83 min: A second Barca change, as Fermín López comes on for Olmo.
82 min: … unless they can rediscover their attacking verve, of course. Dumfries makes good down the right and cuts back for Frattesi, who can’t get a shot away. That’s a rare Inter attack in this second half.
81 min: Inter will get another sub if this match goes to extra time, of course. But there’s a lot of defending for them still to do before we get there.
80 min: Inter make their last subs. Zielinski and Frattesi come on for Çalhanoğlu and Mkhitaryan. The latter was booked for the foul on Yamal that nearly cost a penalty, by the way.
78 min: Yamal again, this time an electrical current down the right. He enters the box and whips a shot from a tight angle towards the top-left corner. Sommer palms away again.
77 min: Yamal probes down the right. Nowhere to go. He’s forced to turn tail … but then suddenly swivels back round again, and curls powerfully towards the top-left corner. Sommer does exceptionally well to palm the ball around the post for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece. That would have been a glorious goal, fashioned out of nothing.
76 min: Barca make their first change of the evening, replacing Martinez with Araujo.
75 min: This is pretty much attack versus defence right now. Inter can’t keep hold of the ball at all, and their fans are getting a little bit frustrated as they keep giving possession away.
73 min: Nothing comes of it.
72 min: Yamal crosses from the right. The ball floats all the way to Martin, who is becoming a real thorn in Inter’s side down the left flank. He wins a corner.
71 min: A double change for Inter, as Martinez and Bisseck make way for Taremi and Darmian.
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70 min: The free kick’s worked to Yamal, who sends a screamer goalwards from the edge of the D. The shot takes a flick off the back of his own man, De Jong, and over the bar. Inter regulate their breathing again.
No penalty!
69 min: The first contact was outside the box, and VAR tells the referee to change his decision. That’s tough on Barcelona, not least because there was contact in the box as well. Inter get away with a huge one there. but it’s still a free kick just to the right of the D.
Penalty for Barcelona!
68 min: Mkhitaryan’s loose pass out from the back is intercepted, and Yamal is sent clear down the inside-right channel. Yamal enters the box and is brought down by Mkhitaryan. The referee points to the penalty spot!
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66 min: Yamal strides clear of an industrial lunge by Augusto, and away down the right. But his dinked cross is aimless. Inter, who were short at the back, breathe again. This is all Barcelona now.
64 min: Martinez has the opportunity to release Dumfries into the Barca box down the right, but underhits the pass. Inter suddenly second-guessing themselves, no longer playing with the breezy confidence of the first half.
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62 min: Thuram chases after a long punt down the middle. He gives up on it, and the flag indeed eventually goes up for offside … but replays show he was on. Had he kept going, Szczęsny – who hacked clear under no pressure – might have had a problem.
61 min: Olmo, his tail up, has a dig from distance. He slips and sends the ball miles over the bar. Inter are reeling and San Siro is stunned!
GOAL! Internazionale 2-2 Barcelona (Olmo 60); agg 5-5
Raphinha fizzes the free kick in low, but it’s cleared. No matter, though, because Martin sends a viciously curling cross in from the left. Olmo, unmarked six yards out, powers a header home, and for the second time in this tie, Barcelona have come back from two goals down!
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59 min: Yamal skips down the right touchline at warp speed, before cutting infield and drawing a clumsy challenge from Bastoni. A free kick just to the right of the box, 25 yards out.
57 min: … Barca break upfield! It’s three on two! Martin crosses from the left; Garcia meets the cross again, but slams his shot straight at Sommer from six yards! The sides should be level. Great point-blank save by the keeper, but Sommer should never have been allowed to make it. “An incredible miss,” says Alan Shearer on Amazon, and he’s not wrong.
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56 min: Augusto comes on for Dimarco, then Barella hits a speculative shot towards the bottom left. Szczęsny tips around the post, and from the resulting corner …
55 min: That was a hell of a finish. And how the atmosphere has suddenly changed. Just over a minute earlier, Inter were, for nanoseconds until the flag went up for offside, 6-3 up on aggregate. Now it’s 5-4 and anything is on!
GOAL! Internazionale 2-1 Barcelona (Garcia 54); agg 5-4
Space for Martin down the left. He crosses. Blocked. He has another go, cutting back for Garcia, who races in from the right and sends a screeching volley across Sommer and into the top left! Game on!
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52 min: Çalhanoğlu curls the free kick into the Barca box. Acerbi stoops to meet it, heading across Szczęsny, off the left-hand post and in! But the flag goes up for offside. It’s obvious. No goal. What a finish, mind.
51 min: Martinez looks for Thuram down the right. Thuram chests down and backs himself in a footrace with Martinez, who slides in late and goes into the book as a result. A free kick out on the right. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Barca box.
50 min: Olmo scoops a pass down the inside-right channel for Yamal, who enters the box but can’t get a bouncing ball under control, and goes over under pressure from Bastoni, who has his arm around him. Yamal wants a penalty but he’s not getting one, having gone over far too easily.
48 min: Thuram strips a dozing De Jong of possession and Inter break. He’s got options either side, but his final ball, intended for Martinez, is poor and Barca are off the hook.
47 min: This is quite the stat courtesy of Amazon Prime: Lautaro Martínez only touched the ball nine times in that first half, no player had fewer, but one of them was a goal, and another drew the foul that led to the penalty. Quality over quantity.
Barcelona get in a huddle … then get the second half underway. No changes.
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Half-time postbag. “The Barcelona stars leave a lot of space between them for Inter to rocket into. Bayern played in that style too, and the Milanese team made the most of the time and opportunity afforded to them then too” – Kári Tulinius
“This is pretty comfortable for Inter. Sit back and counter” – Tim Stappard
“This isn’t the only high stakes knockout game on telly tonight between two historic old foes. Partick Thistle, who finished fourth after the Scottish Championship regular season, are currently goalless with third place Ayr United in the first leg of their Scottish Premiership quarter final play off. The winners will then play runners up Livingston home and away, with the winners of that facing the team that finishes 11th in the Scottish Premiership, likely to be either Ross County or Dundee, over another two games to determine who plays in the SPL next season. It’s a process that would make the Uefa bigwigs proud don’t you think?” – Simon McMahon
HALF TIME: Internazionale 2-0 Barcelona (agg 5-3)
The whistle goes for the break, and the Barcelona bench briefly considers going Full Real Madrid, a couple of the subs running onto the pitch towards the referee. But then everyone thinks better of it. No trenchant exchange of views, no ice packs launched, and everyone goes down the tunnel to calm down. Barca raging … but Inter delighted, and they deservedly lead!
45 min +3: VAR finishes its red-card check and there’s nothing doing.
45 min +2: Barcelona are livid, even though Cubarsí went through his opponent. They’re not letting this lie, and now there’s a potential red card coming up. Not sure who for or why, but VAR’s a-looking.
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GOAL! Internazionale 2-0 Barcelona (Çalhanoğlu 45+1 pen); agg 5-3
Just as the clock ticks past the 45-minute mark, Çalhanoğlu slams the spot kick into the bottom-left corner! Szczęsny sent the wrong way. He’d have had trouble reaching that spot kick even if he’d guessed correctly!
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Penalty for Internazionale!
44 min: Well, well, well! That initially looked a great tackle. But Martinez indeed got a little touch first, before Cubarsi slid in and took his legs away. It’s a penalty! Hats off to VAR. But Hansi Flick is fuming.
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43 min: … but Martinez stays down, and VAR is going to have a look at a potential penalty. It looked a perfectly timed challenge … but did Martinez get a little touch first? The referee draws a telly-box in the air, and trots over to the monitor!
42 min: Mkhitaryan sends Martinez away down the left. Martinez enters the box, and is odds-on to score … but he hesitates, allowing Cubarsi to put in a crunching tackle. That’s a brilliant challenge, one that’s saved a sure-fire second goal for Inter.
41 min: … but Inter do as well, and this time it’s Çalhanoğlu who latches onto a poor Barca clearance, and slices a snapshot wide right from 12 yards. “He should score,” says Alan Shearer on Amazon Prime.
40 min: Yamal dribbles elegantly down the right, then into the box, past one, past two … but just before space opens up to shoot, he slips over as Bastoni arrives on the scene to block. Barcelona definitely have a goal in them.
38 min: Barella latches onto Martinez’s half-clearance, 25 yards out, down the inside-right channel, and pearls a glorious first-time volley across Szczęsny and inches wide of the left-hand post. Very close. Had that been on target, Szczęsny wasn’t getting to it.
37 min: During that move, Çalhanoğlu clattered into Olmo late, and goes into the book as a result.
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36 min: Olmo sashays powerfully down the middle of the park before slipping the ball to Yamal, down the inside-right channel. Yamal enters the box and pivots before scuffing a shot intended for the bottom-left corner well wide of the goal.
34 min: Yamal skips past Dimarco down the right for the nth time, and cuts back for Pedri, who crosses towards Torres and Raphinha at the far stick. Both are free, six yards out; both confuse the other, and the ball pings off Torres and out for a goal kick. That should have been the equaliser.
32 min: Sommer punches clear again, this time dealing with Martin’s cross from the left as Torres lurks.
31 min: Barella loses the ball to Raphinha down the Barca left, and the latter looks for Torres in the middle. Torres shapes to shoot from six yards, but Bisseck gets in the road to turn behind for a corner. Sommer punches the set piece clear.
30 min: Pedri has a dig from 25 yards. Miles over the bar. No need to get this desperate so early.
29 min: … especially as nothing comes of the resulting corner.
28 min: Yamal plays a glorious reverse pass down the right for Olmo, who has Torres and Raphinha up with him, Inter light at the back. But Olmo inexplicably slows down upon entering the box, unsure whether to cross or shoot. He eventually takes a whack, and it’s deflected wide left for a corner, but Barcelona should have got more out of that.
26 min: No penalty. You’ve seen them given, though.
25 min: Barcelona have responded well to falling behind. Olmo scraps for a ball bouncing around the Inter box. He tries to prod home from close range but the ball breaks off Acerbi, flailing around on the floor, and away. That’s hit Acerbi’s arm, though, and VAR will take a look.
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23 min: Yamal goes jigging past Dimarco again, and could easily go down to claim a free kick as his opponent gets desperate. But he tries to stay on his feet and eventually miscontrols. Goal kick. Yamal not happy with the referee.
GOAL! Internazionale 1-0 Barcelona (Martinez 21); agg 4-3
Barca faff around playing it out from the back, De Jong and Olmo at fault, Dimarco snapping away. An interception, and Dumfries is slipped clear, with Martinez to his left. Dumfries draws Szczęsny and rolls the ball to his skipper, who can’t miss, the goal gaping. Inter ahead and San Siro erupts!
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21 min: Dumfries slips Barella into space down the right channel. Barella flicks the ball over Martin’s head, cutting into the box and pearling a shot goalwards. It’s a fine effort but one parried and gathered by Szczęsny. No matter, though, because …
19 min: Bisseck throws long from the left. De Jong is forced to turn behind for a corner. That’s cut back for Çalhanoğlu, who shoots from distance and wins another corner. Barca clear the second one. The home side are beginning to ask a few questions, even if Szczęsny is yet to be put to work.
17 min: Mkhitaryan romps down the left, with time and in space. He’s got Martinez free in the middle, but his low cross is easily deflected behind by Garcia. Nothing comes of the resulting set piece.
16 min: Thuram overthinks things again, this time on the edge of the D, hesitating before curling a low shot well wide right of goal.
15 min: Dumfries and Thuram were both hesitant when presented with chances to shoot; Yamal needs no invitation to be about his business, and cuts in from the right before whipping a low shot straight at Sommer.
13 min: Martinez splits the Barca defence with one simple pass down the middle. Thuram is free! He enters the box and drops a shoulder, trying to round Szczesny on the right. But the keeper palms the ball away from his toe. Then the flag pops up for offside anyway.
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11 min: Dumfries looks long for Thuram down the right, but his team-mate has checked his run. Nobody there. Both sides favouring their right flank so far.
9 min: Barca press Inter back. Yamal, Olmo and Pedri exchange passes as they move the ball right to left, across the face of the Inter box. But there’s no way through, and Inter break through Dumfries down the right. Dumfries holds off Martin and thinks about crossing low for Martinez, but he hesitates, loses momentum, and eventually only manages to clank the ball softly in Szczesny’s direction. Inter’s first promising moment of the evening.
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7 min: … so Inter slow things down a bit by taking their sweet time over a throw.
6 min: Raphinha crosses low from the left. The ball nearly threads through to Torres, but Sommer hacks clear just in time. Barca come again with another wave, Yamal crossing long from the right, but it’s too high for Raphinha and flies out for a goal kick. Barca have started the brighter.
4 min: Yep, here we go. Yamal dribbles for the first time down the right, cuts infield, and draws a foul from Dimarco. Most likely it won’t be the last.
2 min: Barcelona launch it down the right again. They’re obviously hoping to lean into the Yamal-Dimarco tussle once more. That didn’t end well for the Inter man last week.
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20 secs: Inter started quickly in Barcelona; Barca nearly return the favour here. Torres is found in space in the Inter box down the right, but the flag pops up for offside before he can roll a pass across for Raphinha to tap home.
Inter get the ball rolling. Another 3-3 draw, please! We’ll have extra time and possibly penalties if so.
The teams are out! A rare old atmosphere as night falls on San Siro. Three-time champions Internazionale. Five-time winners Barcelona. A message written across one stand in pretty paper: FORZA. Zadok the Priest (sort of). Hands clasped. Pennants exchanged. The stands buzzing. Anticipation crackles. San Siro roars. This feels classical. None more European Cuppy. We’ll be off in a minute. “The New York Times included a comparison between Yamal’s genius and that of Leonardo da Vinci today!” reports Justin Kavanagh. “Now there’s a clip that any smart coach would pin up in the dressing room as an affront to all Italians.”
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Kit and caboodle. Back on home turf at the San Siro, Inter will sport their storied black and blue stripes tonight. Their match pennant is crisp and unfussy, winning top marks for design, with the caveat that their old interlapping FCIM logo was far classier than the current Volkswagen-adjacent monstrosity.
Barcelona will wear their third-choice green kit. It clashes with their pennant.
Inter have history on their side in the wake of last week’s 3-3 rollercoaster. They’ve won 15 of the 21 European ties in which they’ve managed to record a first-leg away draw, a ratio that compares favourably to Barcelona’s record upon being held to a first-leg home draw: of the 14 times that’s happened, the Blaugrana have only made it through on seven occasions. However both clubs lost the last time they found themselves in this particular situation, Eintracht Frankfurt knocking Inter out of the 2018-19 Europa League (1-1 a, 0-1 h) and Manchester United doing for Barcelona in the 2022-23 Europa League (2-2 h, 1-2 a).
… and here’s how Barça got here. The Catalans came second in the mega-group, despite losing their first fixture 2-1 away at Monaco. They went on to beat Young Boys (h) 5-0, Bayern Munich (h) 4-1, Red Star Belgrade (a) 5-2, Brest (h) 3-0, Borussia Dortmund (a) 3-2 and Benfica (a) 5-4, before finally drawing 2-2 at home with Atalanta. Benfica were dispatched 4-1 on aggregate in the round of 16, then Barca faced Dortmund in the quarters, whereupon …
A reminder of how Inter made it to the semis. The Italian champions finished fourth in the group stage. Their campaign began with a goalless draw at Manchester City, before chalking up six wins – Red Star Belgrade (h) 4-0, Young Boys (a) 1-0, Arsenal (h) 1-0, RB Leipzig (h) 1-0, Sparta Prague (a) 1-0 and Monaco (h) 3-0 – plus a 1-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen. (Five 1-0s and a goalless draw! Helenio Herrera would have been delighted with that sequence of scorelines.) Anyway, Feyenoord were seen off 4-1 on aggregate in the round of 16, and then it was Bayern Munich in the quarters …
Internazionale name the same starting XI as they did in the first leg in Barcelona last week. Their captain Lautaro Martínez, who went off injured at half time at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys and was a doubt for tonight, has recovered from a muscle problem.
Barcelona make one change to their starting line-up from last week. Jules Koundé is injured so Eric Garcia takes his place in defence. Robert Lewandowski has recovered from his hamstring injury and takes a place on the bench.
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The teams
Internazionale: Sommer, Bisseck, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Lautaro Martinez, Thuram.
Subs: Di Gennaro, Josep Martinez, de Vrij, Zielinski, Arnautovic, Frattesi, Asllani, Carlos Augusto, Darmian, Zalewski, Taremi, Re Cecconi.
Barcelona: Szczesny, Garcia, Cubarsi, Martinez, Gerard, de Jong, Gonzalez, Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha, Torres.
Subs: Pena, Astralaga, Araujo, Gavi, Lewandowski, Fati, Christensen, Lopez, Victor, Fort, Farre, Darvich.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland).
VAR: Dennis Higler (Netherlands).
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Preamble
If the second leg is even half as good as this …
… we’re in for a ride. Kick-off is at 8pm BST. It’s on!
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