Barcelona (AP) – Lamine Yamal fired a combined shot that hit a stick and went into the arch, after a great individual play. Marcus Thuram lavished an accurate heel. Raphinha hit the horizontal with a missile that then hit the goalkeeper before rocking the networks.
And we must not forget the Chilean of Denzel Dumfries, before he scored again with a powerful header.
It is difficult to choose which was the best goal of Wednesday in the electrifying 3-3 draw between Barcelona and Inter Milan in the first leg of its semifinal of the Champions League, which left an unmissable sequel prepared for next week in Milan.
Opta Stats said it was the draw with the greatest amount of goals in a semifinal of the Champions League since Bayern Munich and Dinamo de kyiv ended with the same score in April 1999.
What was supposed to be a contrast of styles between Barcelona, the most scoring team, and the most strong defense of the competition, became a shot and daca.
Inter equald the offensive power of Barcelona with two goals derived from corner shots, and the hosts needed another stellar performance of Yamal in its number 100 appearance with its club.
Except for the beginning of Inter and its strength in the ball plays, Barcelona imposed its game with 66% possession and seven shots on the door in front of the three of the Inter, but had to settle for a draw.
Thuram was a doubt to enter the starting eleven after missing the three previous games of the Inter, all defeats without scoring goals. But the French striker used the heel to connect a Denzel Dumfries center and surprise the hosts just seconds after the start.
Dumfries scored the first of his two goals of the night with a Chilean to double the advantage of Inter at 21 minutes.
Yamal illuminated Barça at 24 minutes. The 17 -year -old prodigy bargain two defenders and defined with a touch of left -handed to the second stick. He was close to matching moments later after sliding down the bottom line and shooting almost without angle, shuddering the crossbar.
“I think it is special. I have often said it, it is a genius. during the game, from the outside, you see the situations that you have during the game and when you see the details, it is incredible what it does,” said Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, referring to Yamal. “It shows that with 17 years it is already different, the important thing is to continue.
“The game has been fantastic, in some semifinals of ‘Champions’. We have not started well, we have fit goals to a stopped ball and we knew they are the best teams. When you see its height, it is difficult but we have to defend better.”
Ferran Torres pushed a chopped raphinha header to the bottom for the Barca 2-2 at 38.
Inter suffered another blow when Argentine striker Lautaro Martínez had to be replaced in the break, but Dumfries threw himself to head a corner and put the Nerazzurro team ahead at 63.
Raphinha needed two minutes to match again for Barça when his powerful shot from outside the area hit the crossbar, bounced on Yann Sommer’s back and found the network.
“Playing at home, we had the obligation to win,” said Raphinha. “But the result is not so bad and we will prepare for the second game, to get ahead.”
Barcelona tries to reach its first final since 2015, when it got its fifth title. In its first season under Flick, the Spanish club also tries to repeat the triplet of important trophies that it won a decade ago.
The Simone Inzaghi Inter aspires to its second final in three years, after losing to Manchester City in the trophy match in 2023.
The last time Inter, three times winner, lifted the European Cup was to overcome Barcelona at the same stage in 2010.
The winner of the tie will face Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal in Munich on May 31. The PSG beat Arsenal 1-0 in London on Tuesday in its first game.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
