FC Barcelona, five-time winner of the UEFA Champions League, goes to northern Italy to face Inter Milan, triple title holder, in a decisive return match of its semi-final on Tuesday evening.
Barcelona is a walk from the final. The Hansi Flick team dominated Borussia Dortmund 5-3 on all of the two-foster matches and has just won the King Cup final against Real Madrid after a chaotic match and rich in red cards.
With four points ahead of Liga, Barça targets the hat-trick, and his semi-final against Inter is a revenge of the 2010 epic, where the Nerazzurri of José Mourinho had broken the hearts of the Catalans. The first leg had ended in a 3-3 draw, giving rise to a memorable return match in Milan.
Inter, under the direction of Simone Inzaghi, has retained more clean Sheets than anyone in the competition. Their 4-3 victory over all of the two matches against Bayern Munich demonstrated both guts and talent, Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram proving that they can hurt anyone.
-The Hopes of the Inter rest on Martínez, the Argentinian captain who had marked in five consecutive games of the Champions League before facing Barcelona. His duet with Thuram is formidable, and the laterals Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco bring width and dynamism. The defense, led by Alessandro Bastoni and Francesco Acerbi, is extremely stingy, but the ankle sprain of Benjamin Pavard could force a reshuffle.
The Catalan giants remain on the right track for a rare tripled-Liga titles, King Cup and Champions League-but left the first leg of their semi-final of the Champions League at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona with only a draw against Inter, leaving them to do on the road in Milan.
The Inter, which aims for a second Champions League final in three seasons, intends to get rid of the flamboyant leader of the Liga at home. But the Nerazzurri were far from being at their best on Saturday, winning the tight score of 1-0 at home against Verona, 15th, in the Serie A championship match in San Siro.
