For the second time in six days, Inter Milan and Barcelona served up a European classic. On Tuesday night, the Italian champions won 4-3 to edge Barca 7-6 on aggregate.
After 210 gripping minutes and 13 goals, Internazionale have reached their second UEFA Champions League final in three years, surviving three astonishing Barcelona comebacks to eliminate the LaLiga side 7-6 on aggregate.
Davide Frattesi scored the winning goal in extra time to seal a 4-3 win. San Siro erupted as the rain began to pour, but that doesn’t come close to telling the full story of one of the most remarkable European semifinals ever.
Barça, who came from 2-0 and 3-2 down in the first leg to draw 3-3 last week, had earlier produced yet another stirring turnaround to move to the brink of their first Champions League final since 2015. When Raphinha struck in the 87th minute, they led for the first time in the tie after second-half goals from Eric García and Dani Olmo had cancelled out a first-half strike from Lautaro Martínez and a Hakan Çalhanoglu penalty.
But their advantage lasted only six minutes. They were unable to get over the line, with veteran defender Francesco Acerbi turning home from close range in the 93rd minute. There was still time for the brilliant Yann Sommer to deny Lamine Yamal, who had also hit the post before Acerbi’s late goal, but the teams could not be separated after 180 minutes.
Frattesi pulled Inter clear again in the 99th minute, and then it was over to Sommer to seal his team’s passage to the final in Munich against either Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal on May 31. The Swiss goalkeeper saved superbly on two occasions from Yamal as Barça threw everything at the Inter Milan side, but they held on to win and the three-time winners will now have the chance to banish memories of defeat to Manchester City in the final in 2023.
Inter Milan, Barça produce a game for the ages
There are two words for this sort of game, and they both have four letters. But I can only print one of them here, so I’m just going to say “EPIC.” That’s not what many neutrals, worn out by 120 minutes — more than 130 if you count injury time — of enthralling, twisting-in-the-tale football, probably uttered at the final whistle.
So much has been made about rotations, squad management and the physical toll that this game takes on its protagonists. Barça boss Hansi Flick rested nine starters over the weekend, his counterpart Simone Inzaghi — who has an older squad and has been rotating all season — 10 starters. But Tuesday night at San Siro, we moved into something else. Whatever reserves these two teams had as we headed toward the 90th minute were long exhausted.
Inter’s well had run dry before Barça’s, enabling their comeback from two goals down to lead 3-2 as the clock ticked down. As much as their legs were heavy, it was compounded by the fact that their minds had become clouded, their decisions poor, their judgment ill-timed. They had fallen under the spell of Yamal — the Blonde Beelzebub, the 17-year-old with otherworldly skills, veteran brains and always in perpetual motion.
Eagle-eyed VAR gets it right
More simply put, without VAR, referee Szymon Marciniak does not award the penalty for Pau Cubarsí‘s last-ditch tackle on Lautaro. There is simply no way he could have seen Cubarsí fail to make contact with the ball.
This was not a case of “do nothing and let VAR sort it out.” It simply didn’t look like a penalty. And it didn’t look like a penalty in the first three replays that were shown. All of them suggest Cubarsí gets the ball first. And then comes the fourth, which leaves zero doubt: Cubarsí’s contact is with Lautaro. That’s what the referee was shown, and that’s why the penalty was awarded.
You might like or dislike VAR, but there is little question that its effectiveness depends on what replays are available. And how the absence of evidence in the first few replays doesn’t mean there will be evidence of absence (of a foul) in the fourth.
Inter Milan will play either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the final of the UEFA Champions League Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, on 31 May 2025.
