There are evenings when football go beyond sport to become a legend, where every minute stretches time until rupture. This Tuesday evening in Giuseppe Meazza, Inter and Barcelona did not play a semi-final return from the Champions League; They wrote a baroque opera, a Homeric epic where the scenario, repeatedly overthrown, kept millions of souls until the end of the extension. At the end of a duel where reason capitulated in front of pure emotion, inter, income from the abyss, tore off its qualification (4-3, AP, 7-6 cumulative score), leaving a heroic but bloodless barça on the tile.
Inter, master of the first act
However, the first period had drawn an almost expected frame. Inter, carried by the fervor of his people, took the lead. Lautaro Martinez, uncertain but very present, made a high recovery of Dimarco relayed by Dumfries (21st). Then, just before the break, an illicit tackle of Cubarsi on the Argentinian in the surface, invisible to the naked eye but revealed by the Var, offered Calhanoglu the opportunity to transform a clinical penalty (45th). 2-0. The Inter seemed to want to pay tribute to his ancestor Helenio Herrera, opting for a catenaccio who, it was thought, was going to suffocate the Catalan hints. Barça, despite an attempt by Yamal (15th) repelled by Sommer and a few incursions, seemed taken in the trap, while Barella (21st) and Mkhitaryan (38th) lacked the note for the Nerazzurri.
Furia Blaugrana and the mirage of a qualification
But this Barça there, already the author of a fantastic rise to the outward journey (3-3), never dies. Transfigured income, the Blaugrana unleashed a storm. Gerard Martin, improbable alternate hero An absent bald, turned into a detonator. First by a perfect center for the victorious head of Eric Garcia (around the 50th), who had himself brushed against the frame shortly after (57th). Then, the same Martin offered Dani Olmo the goal of equalization (2-2, 60th). San Siro was silent. Inter, curled up, suffered. Yamal, elusive, obtained a penalty (68th) finally transformed into a free kick after video consultation, before obliging to summon to a new class parade (77th). And what was to happen happened: on a loss of an integral ball, Raphinha, in two stages, shot Sommer (88th). 3-2 for Barcelona. The stadium was KO, the qualification seemed to have chosen its camp.
Acerbi, the thunderclap before night
The Inter seemed to be lost, condemned by the mastery found of his opponent. But football that evening had decided to challenge all logic. While the stoppages were rushing out, on a long clearance from Sommer, Thuram died for Dumfries who focused on the line. Who to arise? Francesco Acerbi, the central defender, mounted at the forefront, who with a recovery without control was catapulting the ball at the bottom of the nets (3-3, 95th). Unreal. San Siro exploded with denying joy. Extension. Everything had to be redone.
The deluge, frattesi and the intentional apotheosis in overtime
The extension began under a deluge which added an even more dramatic dimension to this irrational evening. And it is the Inter who, carried by a found fervor, resumed the wire. In the 99th minute, Marcus Thuram, at the cost of exceptional work against Araujo, served Taremi whose delivery found Davide Prattesi. The Italian, already a quarter savior, spanked Szczesny and slipped the ball into the bottom (4-3). San Siro will capsize in a rain of happiness. Barça, despite the energy of despair and immense fatigue, tried to come back. Lewandowski (108th) and then Yamal twice (114th, 116th), goal on an imperial summer (7 stops in total), while Futtesi lacked the KO (109th).
A semi-final for eternity
At the final whistle, the Inter could exult. This qualification, the second for a Champions League final in three years, is not only a victory, it is a fresco. A hunted of emotions, goals, twists and turns that inscribes this double confrontation as one of the most spectacular in history. Football, unpredictable and magnificent, had delivered one of his most beautiful works, cruel for an admirable barça of courage, sublime for an inter with a steel mind.
