Internazionale against Barça became a total experience of modern top football as you rarely see it

In a phenomenal confrontation, it was not just the moments of brilliant individual class that will last. Internazionale against FC Barcelona, ​​the semi -final of the Champions League, became a total experience of modern top football as you rarely see. The technical refinement, tactical ingenuity, the physical intensity and mental resilience made this the best that contemporary football has to offer.

The wonder was always near, last Wednesday at the Montjuïc in Barcelona and this Tuesday evening in the packed Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. 3-3 in Catalonia, 4-3 in northern Italy. That makes an almost unreal 7-6, in more than 210 minutes of football. Internazionale wins, in extremis, after an escape in injury time and a winning goal in the extension. At the end of May it will play the final in Munich against Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain.

Coach Simone Inzaghi runs at the beginning of the evening in his suit along the sidelines in an outbreak of Inter, screaming with instructions. More than two and a half hours later, he walked into the field furiously in the meantime because of an arbitral decision that he does not agree with. It illustrates the grandiose theater that this Inter-Barça was.

More sensational

What was there to be desired, after the demonstration last week? Could it be even better, even more sensational? Often after an open first game, a more cautious return follows because coaches build in more certainties.

But that is not included in this FC Barcelona, ​​one of the most entertaining teams in the European top football. Coach Hansi Flick takes enormous risks with an extremely ‘high’ defense line. The defense is often positioned around the center line, in order to be able to put as much pressure on the front as possible. A crucial part in his dominant, attacking playing method.

The result is that there are huge gaps behind the last line of defense. Inter is looking for those spaces, in particular emerging right back Denzel Dumfries, who fulfills a key role with his rushes just like last week. Sometimes Barça flirts because of this radical tactic with self -destruction, were it not for the defense that the offside trap often performs flawlessly. And otherwise there is goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who covers the large spaces by coming out.

Barcelona is optically better, technically refined, has more ball possession with fast, sleek combinations. They sometimes play as jugglers – with heels and other tricks. The hard inter-defender Federico Dimarco, crazy last week by Lamine Yamal, immediately releases a message. After four minutes he already makes a strong violation on the 17-year-old right attacker. For a moment you can see a smile at Yamal.

A few minutes later he flashes two, three men, through a handy ball behind the standing leg. You know something is coming – he still surprises. Yamal gets double mandkking, with Alessandro Bastoni as an extra lock. In that bustle, between all legs, it finds “genius”-as Barcelona coach Hansi Flick calls the boy-almost always an opening. Virtually elusive, unstoppable, so sensitive with the foot on the ball.

That almost uninhibited youthfulness of Barça against the cunning of Inter makes this a fascinating fight. As it is also a collision between football styles. The urge for superior total football from Barcelona, ​​opposite the efficiency and physical sovereignty of Inter, not for nothing specialized in standard situations as soon as the ball is in the air.

Inter is razor-sharp in the duels, is on top of the Barça players. They throw themselves for everything, thus throw their strengths. Dumfries is the model of this Inter, with his power, unyielding rushes and uncomplicated direct game. After a few minutes, he steams forward for the first time on the flank, Gerard Martín shakes off, but then doubts too long with his pass.

Aggressiveness

Barcelona is pushed far back, due to the enormous aggressiveness of Inter. For a moment Barça seems to be able to break out through the ashes, after about twenty minutes. Frenkie de Jong Passt on Dani Olmo, who immediately has the fierce Federico Dimarco in his back. He intercepts, launches Dumfries, if the Barcelona defense is nowhere to be found. Dumfries stays calm, releases Lautaro Martínez, who simply makes 1-0. Via a penalty kick from Hakan Çalhanoğlu, shortly before half-time, it becomes 2-0.

It is special to see that the youngest on the field, Yamal, encourages his teammates when they enter the dressing room. They don’t look mentally. Frenkie de Jong also seems relaxed, he talks to the Polish arbitrator Szymon Marciniak. Last week, Barcelona made up for a 2-0 deficit in a short time.

It does now too. Fifteen minutes after the break, it is already 2-2. Two passes by Back Gerard Martín from the left flank of Barcelona – the zone that Dumfries actually should defend, he gives too much space away – lead the goals of Eric García and Olmo.

In between, the Swiss inter-goalkeeper Yann Sommer makes a crazy rescue to a deployment of García-with an emergency dive, he already anticipates where the shot comes. Even better, his salvation is fifteen minutes before time. Fully stretched, he pushes a hard -rotating shot from Yamal, shot from the right with the left (his specialty), from the far corner.

Three minutes before the end, Sommer first saves on Raphinha’s shot. But in the rebound, the attacker shoots hard. 2-3 FC Barcelona, ​​the comeback complete. Stay calm now, keep control, gestures de Jong. Yamal can decide the game in the second minute of the extra time. But he shoots on the pole.

Frenzied scenes

Inter seems powerless, the elimination inevitable. But suddenly Dumfries comes through in the right zone, with two more minutes to go into the extra time. He looks physically, but still squeezes everything out. He wins the game of Martín, gives low to central defender Francesco Acerbi, who has crept forward. Acerbi apparently easily crawls for Ronald Araujo and taps in, high in the goal: 3-3. Excitable scenes in Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

Especially as in the tenth minute of the extension of substitute Davide Frattesi in the fence climbs towards the supporters. There is good preparatory work in advance of striker Marcus Thuram, who sets up the attack. Via Mehdi Taremi, Frattesi is put in position, he shoots in the far corner: 4-3.

It is raining hard now, just after eleven o’clock in Milan. There is a standing ovation for Dumfries, if he is changed for Stefan de Vrij after 108 minutes. Football is getting worse – with the minute that the field gets wetter. Inter is creaking, but Barcelona also hardly combines fluent anymore.

It is precisely in that phase that Yamal breaks out again spectacularly. Six minutes before time, he comes in a one-on-one duel with Carlos Augusto, diagonally in the right zone for the goal if he is at the most dangerous. Inter-coach Inzaghi screams, sees it going wrong. Yamal shoots in the far corner with the left, but Sommer saves sublime again, with the fingertips of his right hand. Inter-players cheer.

In the extra time of the extension, Barcelona-invader Arajo still gets another chance, but De Vrij throws himself with everything he has for the defender. For example, a masterful fight ended that can be credited as one of the youngest classics in European football.

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