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.
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Inter v Barcelona: Champions League semi-final, second leg – live | Champions League Key events 37 min: During that move, Çalhanoğlu clattered into Olmo late, and goes into the book as a result. 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. 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 4-3Barca faff around playing it out from the back. 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! 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. 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. 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. 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.” 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. The teamsInternazionale: Sommer, Bisseck, Acerbi, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco, Lautaro Martinez, Thuram. Barcelona: Szczesny, Garcia, Cubarsi, Martinez, Gerard, de Jong, Gonzalez, Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha, Torres. Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland). PreambleIf 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! Source link Posted: 2025-05-06 20:40:43 |
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