Barcelona and Inter Milan played out a Champions League tie for the ages, before the Serie A giants sealed their place in the final after 120 thrilling minutes. For the second time in just six days, the two European heavyweights played out a six-goal thriller in normal time, before Inter finally clinched the tie 7-6 on aggregate in extra time.
After a remarkable first leg which ended 3-3, Inter Milan put themselves in the driving seat in the second, establishing a two-goal lead in front of their own fans.
A superb move saw Lautaro Martinez put the hosts in front on the night after 21 minutes following great play involving Dumfries and Federico Dimarco. Then a brilliant VAR intervention before the break saw the hosts get a penalty when Pau Cubarsi upended Martinez.
Hakan Calhanoglu fired in the spot kick to give the hosts a commanding lead on the night and in the tie. But as they did in the first meeting, Barcelona roared back and scored three second-half goals, through Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo and then Raphinha.
The final of those three came with just two minutes of normal time remaining. Lamine Yamal then had the chance to kill the tie, but saw his stoppage-time effort come back off the post.
He was instantly made to rue that misfortune when veteran defender Francesco Acerbi made himself the most unlikely of heroes, scoring a 93rd-minute equaliser to send the tie into extra time. And Davide Frattesi then put Inter back in front on the night, and on aggregate nine minutes into the additional 30.
That goal – the 13th of the tie – finally proved to be the decisive one, but only after some Yann Sommer heroics denied Yamal in the closing minutes.
Alan Shearer working as a commentator on Amazon Prime’s coverage, perhaps summed the drama up best. “Thank you Inter Milan and thank you Barcelona for providing us with incredible entertainment and two great football matches.
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