This year in the Champions League, Barcelona faced Inter Milan in the semi-finals of the Champions League after knocking out Benfica 4-1 on aggregate and Borussia Dortmund 3-5 on aggregate.
Inter made it to the semi-finals by knocking out Feyenoord 4-1 on aggregate and Bayern Munich 4-3 on aggregate. In this tie, Barcelona were the favorites not only to beat Inter Milan but to win the whole competition this year as they have outclassed all the teams that they have drawn in the UCL.
The first leg began on April 30th with Marcus Thuram, Inter Milan’s striker, scoring in the first 30 seconds of the game, making the score 1-0 to Inter Milan. Denzel Dumfries then scored a spectacular bicycle kick against Barcelona to make it 2-0 against Barcelona. Lamine Yamal of Barcelona went on a solo run, passing three defenders to finish with a finesse shot that would end up in the back of the net to make it 2-1, still in favor of Inter Milan.2 minutes later, Lamine Yamal would send Federico Dimarco, Inter Milan’s left-back, to the ground, to shoot another finesse shot that would hit the crossbar and bounce back out. Yann Sommer, Inter Milan’s goalkeeper, then made two key saves to stop Barcelona from scoring in the 29th minute and in the 35th minute but these two saves wouldn’t be enough as Raphina, Barcelona’s left-winger, passed the ball straight to Feran Torres who scored a simple tap-in to even out the scoreline at 2-2.
The ref blew the whistle at half-time, and the score would remain level at 2. Inter then had a quick chance immediately in the second half that Federico Dimarco scuffed over the net. Inter Milan would punish Barcelona for not taking their chances to get ahead and would score another to make the game 3-2, with Denzel Dumfries scoring his 2nd goal of the night. However, Barcelona got a corner in the 64th minute that was played straight to Raphina, who rocketed the ball in the net with a 25-yard screamer that stunned Inter Milan. After that goal, both teams didn’t find the back of the net and the 1st leg ended in a 3-3 draw.
The 2nd leg took place on the 6th of May 2025.
Inter got the first goal of the game with squaring the ball to Lautaro Martinez, Inter Milan’s striker, which would result in an obvious goal to make it 1-0 or 4-3 on aggregate. Minutes later, Barcelona would get a chance, but they failed to score due to Inter Milan’s confident defending. 15 minutes later, Barcelona’s 18-year-old wonderkid, Paulo Cubarsi, went in for a questionable tackle on Lautaro Martinez as he was about to shoot, the referee then checked VAR (Video Assistant Referee) to investigate the potential penalty check. The ref looked at the footage and it was clear that Cubarsi got more of Martinez’s legs than the ball, so the ref awarded a penalty to Inter just before half-time.
Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Inter Milan midfielder, stood over the penalty and confidently slotted it home, sending the keeper the wrong way, giving Inter Milan a 2-0 lead over Barcelona 5-3 on aggregate.
The ref then blew the whistle for half-time with Inter Milan scoring two and no reply from Barcelona.
Inter started the second half with a free-kick in a dangerous position. Çalhanoğlu crossed the ball straight to Francesco Acerbi, Inter Milan’s center-back, who scored but got flagged offside by the assistant referee. Barcelona came alive in the 53rd minute with a cross from Gerard Martin, Barcelona’s left-back, that went straight to Eric Garcia, Barcelona’s center-back, who volleyed the ball past Yann Sommer and into the goal to make the score 2-1 or 5-4 on aggregate.
Minutes later, Nicolo Barella fired a ball, but Wojciech Szczęsny, Barcelona’s goalkeeper, came out on top with a crucial save to stop Barcelona from going 3-1 down or 6-4 down on aggregate.
With that save, Inter Milan got a corner that got intercepted by Barcelona, which gave them space to start a counter-attack. Lamine Yamal played Gerard Martin through on goal who passed it to Pedri, who squared it for Eric Garcia, who shot, but Yann Sommer somehow kept the ball out of his net with one of the best saves in UCL history. In the 59th minute, the ball fell at Martin’s feet, who fired a cross into Inter Milan’s box straight to Dani Olmo, who headed the ball into the back of the net to make the score 2-2 or 5-5 on aggregate.
A risky tackle from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Inter Milan’s center-mid, on Lamine Yamal gave Barcelona a dangerous free-kick chance right outside the penalty box. Lamine Yamal got the ball right outside the box and shot it, only for it to be blocked by his own teammate, Frankie de Jong. Barcelona then became desperate for a goal, which resulted in Lamine Yamal shooting a finesse shot right outside the box that got knocked away by Yann Sommer.
In the 86th minute, the ball landed at Raphinia’s feet who got a low-driven shot off that got saved by Sommer, the ball then bounced off of Sommer’s save right back to Raphinia who tapped the ball right into the back of the net to make it 3-2 or 5-6 to Barcelona on aggregate. In the 91st minute, a bad throw-in from Alessandro Bastoni set Barcelona up perfectly for a counter-attack. The ball got played through to Lamine, who ran the length of the football pitch to get just before Milan’s penalty box, where he let a finesse shot fly that ended up hitting the post.
As a result of Barcelona hitting the post, Inter Milan then started a counter-attack. Denzel Dumfries got the ball on the wing and crossed it inside Acerbi, who tapped the ball past Szczęsny to score his first-ever Champions League goal that tied the game up 3-3 or 6-6 on aggregate with only 3 minutes left of the game. Barcelona had a chance in the last minute of normal time, where Raphinia played an excellent through ball to Yamal, who failed to put the ball past Sommer as he saved another shot to keep his team in the game.
The ref then blew his whistle, which meant this match was headed to extra time.
Inter Milan had the first chance of extra-time with, Thuram ran straight through Barcelona’s defenders to play a ball to Medhi Tarmi, Inter Milan’s back-up striker, who simply tapped the ball to Fratessi who scored the 4th goal of the night for Inter with a beautiful finesse shot that landed in the in the bottom left corner to make it 4-3 or 7-6 on aggregate.
Barcelona struggled to find a response in the first half of extra time, which led to the final 15 minutes of the game. Barcelona got another chance after Yamal controlled the ball and crossed a great ball into Robert Lewandowski, Barcelona’s striker, who headed the ball way over the net. Inter Milan then had a good chance to score with Fratessi having a shot on goal that Szczęsny saved to keep Barcelona in the game and also give his teammates hope.
Barcelona started their counter-attack with Raphinia playing another great through ball to Yamal, who shot a great finesse shot that got denied by Yann Sommer. Barcelona got another chance with Yamal getting another shot on goal that Sommer saved, Lewandowski had a chance to tie up the game with another header that he put way over the net for the second time.
The ref blew the whistle, eliminating Barcelona from the Champions League with Inter Milan winning 4-3 or 7-6 on aggregate to progress to the Champions League final.
