After the fireworks of the first leg, Inter-Barcelona promises spectacle and excitement in the return match. Everything is ready at San Siro for what is likely to be the most important match of the football season, which would open the doors to the Champions League final, scheduled this year at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. First of all, the explosive clash at Montjuic showed us that, contrary to what we thought a week ago, there could be a match between Simone Inzaghi’s Nerazzurri and Hansi Flick’s Blaugrana.
Inter, despite being qualitatively inferior to Barça – especially from midfield onwards – showed that they can create a lot of problems and, above all, know how to hurt the Catalans, who are not very balanced in both phases of play. The 3-3 draw in the first leg highlighted the defensive limitations of de Jong and his teammates, who were willing to concede and take risks with their constantly high defensive line.
The Nerazzurri took advantage of this, putting Barcelona under pressure from the start and also exploiting their set-piece skills. This explains Inter’s lightning double lead, which saw them 2-0 up after 20 minutes. Then Yamal took center stage. With his extraordinary technical skills, the Spanish teenager “revived” his teammates with a series of dazzling dribbles and goals worthy of the highlight reel.
Inter-Barcelona, Yamal is once again Dimarco’s nightmare
After conceding the comeback, Inter deserve credit for not collapsing psychologically. In the second half, Inzaghi courageously decided to push forward, finding the goal that made it 2-3 with Dumfries, who scored twice and was the real MVP of the evening alongside Yamal. The joy was short-lived, however, as just two minutes later, Barça managed to equalize again thanks to an unfortunate own goal by Sommer from a shot by Raphinha.
In such an eventful match, there were only two yellow cards: Calhanoglu for Inter and Cubarsì for Barcelona. In short, Inzaghi’s team kept the number of fouls to a minimum (11 against Flick’s 10) despite the Blaugrana having almost all of the possession (72%).
The question now is: who is at greater risk in the second leg? The feeling is that the referee, Poland’s Marciniak, who is quick to show yellow cards (he has handed out 19 in six appearances in this season’s Champions League), will be forced to pull out a few more.
For Inter, keep an eye on Dimarco, who already had to deal with Yamal in the first leg, almost never managing to contain the rampant 17-year-old (Carlos Augusto did better than him), and on Mkhitaryan. The Armenian, let’s not forget, is the fourth most foul-prone player among the Nerazzurri. As for Barcelona, the number one suspect is Eric Garcia, who will have the difficult task of replacing the injured Koundé on the right side of defense and will have to deal with a tough opponent in Dimarco.