Barcelona and Inter Milan played out a pulsating 3-3 draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday, setting up a tantalizing second leg.
Marcus Thuram stunned the hosts with the fastest semi-final goal in tournament history after just 30 seconds, before Denzel Dumfries added a second for Inter midway through the first half.
However, Barcelona — inspired by 17-year-old Lamine Yamal — roared back. Yamal marked his 100th appearance with a brilliant solo goal before Ferran Torres equalized following fine work by Raphinha. Inter regained the lead in the second half through Dumfries’ header, but Raphinha’s thunderous strike leveled the score again within two minutes.
Yamal dazzled with six shots, two chances created, and 102 touches, while Raphinha’s eighth assist of the competition brought him close to breaking assist records. Inter, clinical with all three shots on target, leaned on Dumfries’ heroics, as he became the first Dutchman since Wesley Sneijder to both score and assist in a semi-final.
With the tie finely balanced, all eyes now turn to next week’s decisive second leg.
“It will be a final for us and I’m counting on 75,000 of our fans to help us achieve this remarkable accomplishment,” said Inter’s manager Simone Inzaghi.
Inzaghi added that his team could have won the match but Yamal made it difficult for them saying players like him are born “every 50 years”.
“We could even have won this game against a team who have a player who is difficult to stop,” Inzaghi said. “We started well, but they created a lot of problems: he created a lot of problems. He [Yamal] is a player I had not seen live before. We had to double up on him.”
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