With 13 goals scored and drama from start to finish, Inter and Barcelona produced a two-legged Champions League tie for the ages in their semi-final. But what made it so special?
There is no definitive list of what make a great tie in knockout football, but if there was, this season’s UEFA Champions League semi-final between Inter and Barcelona would have ticked a lot of the boxes.
Thirteen goals. Drama. Quality. The lead changing hands time and again. Injury-time action. Surprise heroes. End-to-end football. VAR controversy (if that’s your bag). And ultimately, the underdog going through.
For 210 enthralling minutes, you could not take your eyes off the action. From Marcus Thuram’s opener 30 seconds into the first leg in Catalonia to Davide Frattesi’s winner in Milan and Barcelona toiling for their fourth equaliser of the tie, this was a semi-final for the ages. With a place in the Champions League final on the line, Inter and Barcelona produced an all-time classic.
This semi-final equalled the record for the highest-scoring knockout tie in Champions League history, level with another semi-final in Liverpool 7-6 Roma from 2017-18 and Bayern Munich 12-1 Sporting CP in the 2008-09 round of 16.
But while those two ties saw plenty of action, neither produced the see-saw-like drama of Inter vs Barcelona.
2-0 Inter. 2-2. 3-2 Inter. 3-3. 5-3 Inter. 5-5. 6-5 Barça. 6-6. 7-6 Inter. Game over.
Inter took the lead on four separate occasions, Barcelona equalised three times and took the lead once, and Inter equalised once themselves, too. In total, the aggregate match result (win/draw/loss) changed nine times. Only two knockout ties in the history of the Champions League have ever seen the lead change as many times.
Those two games were Manchester City vs Monaco in 2016-17 and Fenerbahce vs Sevilla in 2007-08, both of which saw the aggregate result change 10 times and, in that sense, had more drama than Inter vs Barcelona. The latter of those two ties was also decided on penalties, on top of the result changing 10 times.
However, both of those were round-of-16 encounters, and therefore had far less riding on them than this season’s semi-final. The stakes at San Siro on Tuesday night were as high as they come anywhere in two-legged football. This was the biggest competition in club football anywhere in the world, and the final stage at which games are played over two legs. Both teams went all out for the win.
Between them, the teams produced 61 shots, 29 of which hit the target, which is the most in a Champions League knockout tie in the last two years. Yann Sommer, the Inter goalkeeper, conceded six goals but also made 14 saves, the second most in a Champions League semi-final tie on record (since 2003-04). His stops in the second leg from Eric García at point-blank range and then late on from Lamine Yamal were world-class saves that went a long way to winning the tie for his side.
If you had been told before the tie that Inter’s goalkeeper would be crucial to their chances of progression against the attacking might of Barcelona, you probably wouldn’t have been all that surprised. But this wasn’t a backs-to-the-wall Inter display. This wasn’t José Mourinho’s Inter battling past Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2010. Inter threw players forward whenever they could and carried a significant attacking threat for most of the tie.
Nothing highlighted that more than right wing-back Denzel Dumfries producing one of the most effective attacking performances across two legs of a tie this deep into the competition that the Champions League has ever seen.
He registered five goal involvements (two goals, three assists), something only two players have ever managed before in a Champions League semi-final – Alessandro Del Piero (six) and Roberto Firmino (five). Both of those players are far more known for their attacking capability than Dumfries, who before the first leg had produced just three goals or assists in his first 39 appearances in the Champions League.
Left wing-back Federico Dimarco was more restricted in what he could do with the ball largely because of the threat posed by Yamal at the other end of the pitch.
The 17-year-old put in an all-timer of a performance in the first leg, dragging his team back into the tie and becoming the youngest player ever to score in a Champions League semi-final as he showed the world once again what an incredible talent he is. And he very, very nearly ended the tie in Milan on Tuesday night, only to be punished brutally by the opposition. That’s how tight the margins were in this semi-final.
After teammate Raphinha put Barcelona in front for the first time in the tie 87 minutes into the second leg with a goal that equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for the most goal involvements by a player in a Champions League season (21), Yamal came within a few inches of killing the game. With 92 minutes on the clock, the teenager cut in from the right and fired a low effort that had Sommer beaten but cannoned back off the post.
It’s difficult to find fault with anything Yamal does, but his decision to shoot rather than retain possession proved to be one that highlighted his inexperience with the most devastating of consequences. Less than 45 seconds later, the ball was in the Barcelona net to send the game to extra-time.
Inter had ridden their luck in the second half of the second leg, managing just two shots and 0.20 xG until the moment centre-back Francesco Acerbi found himself on the end of a Dumfries cross to steer the ball into the net against the odds. With that goal, the Italian became the second-oldest scorer in a Champions League semi-final (37 years, 85 days) after Ryan Giggs for Manchester United against Schalke in 2010-11 (37y, 148d). It was also his first ever goal in any European competition, just when his side needed it.
This tie was full of surprises. From Inter taking two-goal leads in each leg to Barcelona fighting back with two quickfire goals on both occasions. Each time they did that – both in Montjuic and then San Siro – the Spaniards, who were many people’s favourites to win the competition, looked in pole position to go on and win the tie. But Inter dug deep and wrestled back control impressively when it looked like they had lost it.
Despite leading for only six minutes in the entire tie, it never felt like Barcelona were out of the running. This was in the balance for every second of its three and a half hours.
In any competition, high-stakes games are so often cagey affairs where teams are more concerned with not conceding goals than they are scoring them.
But Inter versus Barcelona was as free-wheeling and entertaining as football gets. There’s no doubt it was right up there with the best ties the Champions League has ever seen.
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