Between Inter and Barça, it will be hot

Inter Milan and FC Barcelona meet this Tuesday (9 p.m.) for a return semi-final which promises to be explosive after a first leg where a flood of goals (3-3) had fallen on the Camp Nou.

The last time the Barça competed in a C1 semi-final in San Siro, in 2010, the Catalan giant, then carried by Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had taken two days to rally Milan. This time, the Spaniards have nothing to fear from the whims of the Eyjafjöll, this Icelandic volcano whose ashes had paralyzed air traffic fifteen years ago.

A shock in San Siro

After a first round fiery by the opening of Marcus Thuram’s score with an improbable heel and the genius strokes of the Lamine Yamal phenomenon, San Siro, filled with 70,000 spectators, is preparing to experience a shock that could send new seismic replicas through all European football.

“We are going to give everything to Milan, we were superior (to go) despite the draw (…) I am sure that we will pass,” assured Yamal who, from the height of his 17 years, had relaunched his team led 2-0 with a performance that inevitably revived the comparisons with Messi.

“Like a final”

“We will play the return match like a final,” added Hansi Flick. The German coach has already won two trophies, the Spanish Super Cup and the King’s Cup, but the next six days will be decisive to determine if his first Catalan season is a success.

He can indeed offer to the Barça Tuesday a first final of the Champions League since 2015, an eternity for the Catalan club and its supporters, and almost ensure a 28^e Champion title by winning the Clasico at home on Sunday.

Turn the workforce

To approach this capital week, Flick turned on its workforce on Saturday against the Red Lantern Valladolid that Barça had all the sorrows of the world to overthrow (2-1). Yamal entries were needed from the 38^e Minute, then Raphinha and Frenkie de Jong on break so that his team won his 13^e Victory in the last 14 days of Liga.

His Inter counterpart, Simone Inzaghi, adopted exactly the same strategy and even pushed it to the extreme with no less than ten changes compared to the team aligned last week at the Montjuic stadium. The Inter, whose third and last coronation in the Competition-Reine dates back to this volcanic year 2010 when he had eliminated Barça, has difficult to end the unconventional Verona (1-0).

“Double marking” on Yamal

But the reigning Italian champion, ahead of three points by Naples, no longer has his destiny in Serie A and seems to want to focus on the Champions League. “We are just two matches of a title, despite all the difficulties we encountered. We brought the inter to the top of the UEFA ranking when we were 16^e or 17^e Four years ago, we already did something very big, but we wanted to go further, “warned Inzaghi at a press conference.

If he refuses to speak of an anti-yamal plan, the Italian technician suggested that muzzling the Catalan nugget will be the key. “It’s very difficult to deprive him of a balloon, we will try. We will pay him special attention, there will be a double marking on him, but as he has shown to go, it is an exceptional talent, very dangerous when he has the ball, which impressed me with the speed of his decision-making, “he continued.

With Lautaro?

To rally on May 31 in Munich their second final on the last three editions of the C1, after that lost against Manchester City in 2023 (1-0), the Nerazzurri could record the almost unexpected return of Lautaro Martinez. Released on the outward journey because of a left thigh injury, the Captain and Argentinian scorer could ultimately hold his place. “A decision will be made (Tuesday morning),” said Inzaghi.