After a first leg that will be remembered for years to come, FC Barcelona and Inter Milan met again. This time, to decide who would get the chance to face either PSG or Arsenal in the Champions League finale.
Everyone knew that the game between Barcelona and Inter Milan would be anything but easy. Both teams were determined to flip the odds in their favour and eagerly searched for any opportunity to put their opponents under pressure.
At the beginning of the game, it was Inter who saw more chances. Most of the action was happening by Barcelona’s goal, with the Catalan team forced to focus on defending. The Italians’ efforts were rewarded in the 21st minute. It was then that Barca lost the ball at quite an unfortunate spot, allowing Denzel Dumfries and Lautaro Martinez to sprint towards Wojciech Szczęsny’s goal. There was little that the Polish goalkeeper could do as the ball soared past him.
Barcelona, now under pressure, began creating more dangerous actions, but none resulted in a goal. That is not to say that they dominated the game. Inter was still pushing just as hard.
Towards the end of the first half, Martinez darted towards Barca’s goal, only to be stopped in the penalty box by Pau Cubarsi. While the referee, Szymon Marciniak, did not immediately stop the game, after an intervention from the other referees, he went to check the footage from the incident. A penalty was awarded to the Italian team, and Calhanoglu easily converted it into a goal. Barcelona left the field with a great disadvantage.
Despite their lead, Inter didn’t let up as the second half began. They were set on showing Barcelona that they weren’t done quite yet. Within the first ten minutes, they even managed to put the ball in Szczęsny’s net. Thankfully for Barcelona, the goal was offside.
Not long after Inter’s chance, the tide turned. After a long wait, Barcelona managed to score the coveted contact goal. It came after a beautiful cross to Eric Garcia, who shot the ball straight into Yann Sommer’s net.
The change in score breathed life back into the Catalan team. Not long after the first goal, an action created by Pedri and Dani Olmo led to the ball seeing the inside of Inter’s net once more. Just like that, with half an hour of regular time left, the score was equalized.
Both teams were getting increasingly more aggressive as the minutes melted away. Barcelona had more chances towards the end, but Inter made sure that the game was not a walk in the park for both their offence and defence.
Just when it seemed like extra time would be unavoidable, Barcelona did the impossible. Raphinha shot the ball into Sommer’s net, but the goalkeeper managed to stop it from going in. Unfortunately for him, the ball bounced right back to Raphinha. This time, Barcelona’s star didn’t waste the chance.
Inter wasn’t able to find a response in the regular time, and many fans had already given the game to Barcelona. But it’s never over until the final whistle sounds off, as Francesco Acerbi proved when he equalized in the 93rd minute. Those who were already prepared to leave the stadium had to sit back down for the half hour of extra time.
While it is often the case that extra time is slow and forgettable, the one in the Inter/Barcelona semifinal was anything but. The teams danced around each other for the first minutes, creating good chances that they weren’t able to convert. That was until the 99th minute, in which Davide Frattesi played with Barca’s defence before shooting the ball into the far right corner of Szczesny’s goal.
Barcelona wasn’t able to equalise in the first half, but came back in full force after the short break. Blaugrana’s young players were constantly around Inter’s net, looking for any chance to change the score. Despite many great opportunities, they weren’t able to do so. Inter won the game 4 to 3.
The match was thrilling until the very last second. Both teams played a great game, and neither could complain about a lackluster performance. In the end, it was more luck than anything else that put Inter in the Champions League finale.
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