‘There will never be another match like that.’ The Champions League semifinal that turned into a thriller for the ages.
Summary
It took 13 goals, 210 minutes and one miraculous late save, but Inter Milan finally edged out Barcelona to advance to the final in Munich.
There had been seven decades’ worth of semifinals in Europe’s premier soccer tournament before this week. But, in a rare moment of consensus, the soccer world came to an agreement on Tuesday night.
None of those semis had delivered a spectacle quite as heart-stopping as what transpired between Barcelona and Internazionale in the Champions League this season.
Over the course of two legs, these two European giants traded body blow after body blow to draw the first game 3-3 and then score seven more times in the second. The only thing that could separate them was a goal from Inter’s Davide Frattesi, in extra time, after 11 p.m. in the driving Milanese rain.
The 210 total minutes had seen four equalizing goals and two 2-0 leads erased. Barcelona created the better chances, reeled off more shots, and kept the ball for more than twice as long as their opponent. The Catalan club even thought it had a winner when Raphinha scored in the 87th minute to give it a 6-5 lead on aggregate.
But after a miraculous stoppage-time equalizer, the Italians capitalized when it counted. Inter will now play its second Champions League final in the space of three years and awaits the winner of Wednesday’s other semi between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.
“My heart was beating out of my chest, it’s really incredible," Frattesi told CBS. “There will never be another match like that. It’s crazy."
Only once before had a two-leg semifinal seen 13 goals. It came in 2018, when Liverpool overwhelmed Roma 7-6, but the matchup had none of the back-and-forth of Tuesday night. On that occasion, the Italians had mounted a late comeback that fell just short. Inter, on the other hand, was trailing with just three minutes remaining in regulation.
“We had some problems but, with heart, we went over every obstacle," Inter manager Simone Inzaghi said. “Without the sacrifice and the help of all of us together, you can’t do it."
And yet, even with 13 goals to choose from, the defining moment of Inter vs. Barcelona might have been a save.
Inter Milan’s goalkeeper Yann Sommer makes a save after a shot by Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal.
In the 24th minute of extra time, with Inter back in front, Barça’s teenage prodigy Lamine Yamal cut inside from the right flank, shifted onto his left foot and the entire stadium seemed to know what was coming next. Just as Yamal had done to such devastating effect in the first leg, Yamal curled a shot to the far post and waited for the net to bulge. Only this time, Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer launched his 6-foot frame to his right and, floating several feet off the ground, pawed the ball away with his right hand. Even Yamal had been convinced it was going in.
It was the most spectacular of Sommer’s eight saves on the night. And there is no question that his heroics swung things in Inter’s favor. In terms of expected goals, a measure of the quality of the opportunities a team creates, Barcelona finished ahead by 4.56 to 3.68 over the two games. But Sommer alone denied Barça 1.44 expected goals.
Without him, Frattesi wouldn’t even have had the chance for his moment of Italian opera.
“Football," Barça defender Eric Garcia said, “has been very cruel to us."
Write to Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com
