Key events
90 min +1: A free kick for Inter out on the right flank. Barella to loop it into the box.
90 min: Lewandowski comes on for Torres. Barcelona are five additional minutes away from the final!
89 min: Inter are stunned, but they need to react, and quick. Frattesi tries to worm his way into space down the right but is crowded out.
GOAL! Internazionale 2-3 Barcelona (Raphinha 87); agg 5-6
Inter ship possession yet again. And how costly is this. Pedri slips a ball down the inside-left channel for Raphinha, who enters the box and pelts a fierce drive towards goal. Sommer parries well, but the ball breaks back to Raphinha, who has another whack. He pearls it across the keeper and into the bottom right. Torres, lurking at the far stick, does well to jump out of the road, to avoid a deflection that would have rendered the goal offside. What a strike, though!
87 min: Thuram chases after a simple long blooter down the middle of the park. He’s onside, but Szczęsny is on point, racing out of his box to whack clear. And what an intervention, because …
85 min: Martin’s loose ball is pounced on by Darmian, who releases Dumfries down the right. A low cross is hacked clear, then the flag goes up for offside. Inter have improved a little in the last few minutes, but it’s been a low bar.
83 min: A second Barca change, as Fermín López comes on for Olmo.
82 min: … unless they can rediscover their attacking verve, of course. Dumfries makes good down the right and cuts back for Frattesi, who can’t get a shot away. That’s a rare Inter attack in this second half.
81 min: Inter will get another sub if this match goes to extra time, of course. But there’s a lot of defending for them still to do before we get there.
80 min: Inter make their last subs. Zielinski and Frattesi come on for Çalhanoğlu and Mkhitaryan. The latter was booked for the foul on Yamal that nearly cost a penalty, by the way.
78 min: Yamal again, this time an electrical current down the right. He enters the box and whips a shot from a tight angle towards the top-left corner. Sommer palms away again.
77 min: Yamal probes down the right. Nowhere to go. He’s forced to turn tail … but then suddenly swivels back round again, and curls powerfully towards the top-left corner. Sommer does exceptionally well to palm the ball around the post for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece. That would have been a glorious goal, fashioned out of nothing.
76 min: Barca make their first change of the evening, replacing Martinez with Araujo.
75 min: This is pretty much attack versus defence right now. Inter can’t keep hold of the ball at all, and their fans are getting a little bit frustrated as they keep giving possession away.
73 min: Nothing comes of it.
72 min: Yamal crosses from the right. The ball floats all the way to Martin, who is becoming a real thorn in Inter’s side down the left flank. He wins a corner.
71 min: A double change for Inter, as Martinez and Bisseck make way for Taremi and Darmian.
70 min: The free kick’s worked to Yamal, who sends a screamer goalwards from the edge of the D. The shot takes a flick off the back of his own man, De Jong, and over the bar. Inter regulate their breathing again.
No penalty!
69 min: The first contact was outside the box, and VAR tells the referee to change his decision. That’s tough on Barcelona, not least because there was contact in the box as well. Inter get away with a huge one there. but it’s still a free kick just to the right of the D.
Penalty for Barcelona!
68 min: Mkhitaryan’s loose pass out from the back is intercepted, and Yamal is sent clear down the inside-right channel. Yamal enters the box and is brought down by Mkhitaryan. The referee points to the penalty spot!
66 min: Yamal strides clear of an industrial lunge by Augusto, and away down the right. But his dinked cross is aimless. Inter, who were short at the back, breathe again. This is all Barcelona now.
64 min: Martinez has the opportunity to release Dumfries into the Barca box down the right, but underhits the pass. Inter suddenly second-guessing themselves, no longer playing with the breezy confidence of the first half.
62 min: Thuram chases after a long punt down the middle. He gives up on it, and the flag indeed eventually goes up for offside … but replays show he was on. Had he kept going, Szczęsny – who hacked clear under no pressure – might have had a problem.
61 min: Olmo, his tail up, has a dig from distance. He slips and sends the ball miles over the bar. Inter are reeling and San Siro is stunned!
GOAL! Internazionale 2-2 Barcelona (Olmo 60); agg 5-5
Raphinha fizzes the free kick in low, but it’s cleared. No matter, though, because Martin sends a viciously curling cross in from the left. Olmo, unmarked six yards out, powers a header home, and for the second time in this tie, Barcelona have come back from two goals down!
59 min: Yamal skips down the right touchline at warp speed, before cutting infield and drawing a clumsy challenge from Bastoni. A free kick just to the right of the box, 25 yards out.
57 min: … Barca break upfield! It’s three on two! Martin crosses from the left; Garcia meets the cross again, but slams his shot straight at Sommer from six yards! The sides should be level. Great point-blank save by the keeper, but Sommer should never have been allowed to make it. “An incredible miss,” says Alan Shearer on Amazon, and he’s not wrong.
56 min: Augusto comes on for Dimarco, then Barella hits a speculative shot towards the bottom left. Szczęsny tips around the post, and from the resulting corner …
55 min: That was a hell of a finish. And how the atmosphere has suddenly changed. Just over a minute earlier, Inter were, for nanoseconds until the flag went up for offside, 6-3 up on aggregate. Now it’s 5-4 and anything is on!
GOAL! Internazionale 2-1 Barcelona (Garcia 54); agg 5-4
Space for Martin down the left. He crosses. Blocked. He has another go, cutting back for Garcia, who races in from the right and sends a screeching volley across Sommer and into the top left! Game on!
52 min: Çalhanoğlu curls the free kick into the Barca box. Acerbi stoops to meet it, heading across Szczęsny, off the left-hand post and in! But the flag goes up for offside. It’s obvious. No goal. What a finish, mind.
51 min: Martinez looks for Thuram down the right. Thuram chests down and backs himself in a footrace with Martinez, who slides in late and goes into the book as a result. A free kick out on the right. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Barca box.
50 min: Olmo scoops a pass down the inside-right channel for Yamal, who enters the box but can’t get a bouncing ball under control, and goes over under pressure from Bastoni, who has his arm around him. Yamal wants a penalty but he’s not getting one, having gone over far too easily.
48 min: Thuram strips a dozing De Jong of possession and Inter break. He’s got options either side, but his final ball, intended for Martinez, is poor and Barca are off the hook.
47 min: This is quite the stat courtesy of Amazon Prime: Lautaro Martínez only touched the ball nine times in that first half, no player had fewer, but one of them was a goal, and another drew the foul that led to the penalty. Quality over quantity.
Barcelona get in a huddle … then get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time postbag. “The Barcelona stars leave a lot of space between them for Inter to rocket into. Bayern played in that style too, and the Milanese team made the most of the time and opportunity afforded to them then too” – Kári Tulinius
“This is pretty comfortable for Inter. Sit back and counter” – Tim Stappard
“This isn’t the only high stakes knockout game on telly tonight between two historic old foes. Partick Thistle, who finished fourth after the Scottish Championship regular season, are currently goalless with third place Ayr United in the first leg of their Scottish Premiership quarter final play off. The winners will then play runners up Livingston home and away, with the winners of that facing the team that finishes 11th in the Scottish Premiership, likely to be either Ross County or Dundee, over another two games to determine who plays in the SPL next season. It’s a process that would make the Uefa bigwigs proud don’t you think?” – Simon McMahon
HALF TIME: Internazionale 2-0 Barcelona (agg 5-3)
The whistle goes for the break, and the Barcelona bench briefly considers going Full Real Madrid, a couple of the subs running onto the pitch towards the referee. But then everyone thinks better of it. No trenchant exchange of views, no ice packs launched, and everyone goes down the tunnel to calm down. Barca raging … but Inter delighted, and they deservedly lead!
45 min +3: VAR finishes its red-card check and there’s nothing doing.
45 min +2: Barcelona are livid, even though Cubarsí went through his opponent. They’re not letting this lie, and now there’s a potential red card coming up. Not sure who for or why, but VAR’s a-looking.
GOAL! Internazionale 2-0 Barcelona (Çalhanoğlu 45+1 pen); agg 5-3
Just as the clock ticks past the 45-minute mark, Çalhanoğlu slams the spot kick into the bottom-left corner! Szczęsny sent the wrong way. He’d have had trouble reaching that spot kick even if he’d guessed correctly!
Penalty for Internazionale!
44 min: Well, well, well! That initially looked a great tackle. But Martinez indeed got a little touch first, before Cubarsi slid in and took his legs away. It’s a penalty! Hats off to VAR. But Hansi Flick is fuming.
43 min: … but Martinez stays down, and VAR is going to have a look at a potential penalty. It looked a perfectly timed challenge … but did Martinez get a little touch first? The referee draws a telly-box in the air, and trots over to the monitor!
42 min: Mkhitaryan sends Martinez away down the left. Martinez enters the box, and is odds-on to score … but he hesitates, allowing Cubarsi to put in a crunching tackle. That’s a brilliant challenge, one that’s saved a sure-fire second goal for Inter.
41 min: … but Inter do as well, and this time it’s Çalhanoğlu who latches onto a poor Barca clearance, and slices a snapshot wide right from 12 yards. “He should score,” says Alan Shearer on Amazon Prime.
40 min: Yamal dribbles elegantly down the right, then into the box, past one, past two … but just before space opens up to shoot, he slips over as Bastoni arrives on the scene to block. Barcelona definitely have a goal in them.
38 min: Barella latches onto Martinez’s half-clearance, 25 yards out, down the inside-right channel, and pearls a glorious first-time volley across Szczęsny and inches wide of the left-hand post. Very close. Had that been on target, Szczęsny wasn’t getting to it.
37 min: During that move, Çalhanoğlu clattered into Olmo late, and goes into the book as a result.
36 min: Olmo sashays powerfully down the middle of the park before slipping the ball to Yamal, down the inside-right channel. Yamal enters the box and pivots before scuffing a shot intended for the bottom-left corner well wide of the goal.
34 min: Yamal skips past Dimarco down the right for the nth time, and cuts back for Pedri, who crosses towards Torres and Raphinha at the far stick. Both are free, six yards out; both confuse the other, and the ball pings off Torres and out for a goal kick. That should have been the equaliser.
32 min: Sommer punches clear again, this time dealing with Martin’s cross from the left as Torres lurks.
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