Barça and Inter (3-3) gave a recital of beautiful football spectacle
Shock and awe at Montjuic! In one of the most beautiful and exciting semi-finals in the history of the Champions League, Barcelona and Inter Milan drew with an impressive 3-3.
Shock and awe at Montjuic! In one of the most beautiful and exciting semi-finals in the history of the Champions League, Barcelona and Inter Milan drew with an impressive 3-3. The qualification will therefore be decided in the second leg at the Meazza, with the two teams delivering football lessons in a game that is the definition of “entertainment”.
All the goals were amazing. Incredible opportunities on both sides and Inter took the lead twice (2-0 and 3-2), while Barcelona found an answer each time and touched the goal of the mythical turnaround with Yamal in the 87th minute but it was stopped by the post.
Perhaps the best first half in this year's Champions League, with Inter catching Barcelona off guard and taking the lead thanks to a wonderful backheel from Marcus Thuram in the 30th second. The home team pressed for an equalizer but another lapse in their defense, the Dutchman, Denzel Dumfries with a volley made it 2-0 in the 21st minute.
Yamal took it upon himself. He immediately reduced the deficit with a stunning elusive place in 24' (2-1), while two minutes later he went to score an unthinkable goal from the touchline but Sommer and the crossbar deprived him of the 2-2.
Finally, the "blaugrana" managed to bring the score to an equalizer in the 38th minute, with Pedri changing the game and Rafinha providing a ready goal for Ferran Torres. Lautaro left with a problem at half-time, giving his place to Taremi, while Araujo replaced the negative Martin.
The second half was also shocking
The second half had a similar picture. Inter took the lead again in the 63rd minute when Çalhanoğlu executed a corner kick and Dumfries took advantage of Szczesny's poor exit to make it 3-2.
Before the guests could even celebrate, the Catalans responded again. De Jong's corner kick with a pass, Yamal left it under his feet and Rafinha caught a "fireball" that hit first the horizontal, then the back of Sommer and ended up in the back of the goal for 3-3 in 65'.
Lamine Yamal reached 100 appearances for Barcelona before he even turned 18 with a legendary performance against Inter.
What did we learn from the first match? That this Inter seems capable of exploiting the weaknesses of the opposing defense, but Barcelona excels in quality and if they are at the peak of their performance, they will be the ones to qualify. Now the two teams have left open accounts that they will solve in Milan...

Manos Staramopoulos
Journalist and Analyst of International Football and Affairs
Chief Editor English Zone of Discoveryfootball.com
Athens (Greece).