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It all comes down to the second leg of the Champions League semifinal between Spain’s Barcelona and Italy’s Inter Milan. The game is tied at 3-3 on aggregate, so both teams will need to ramp it up if they want to continue on to the prestigious UEFA Champions League final. Tune in to the game this afternoon at 3 PM ET, but not before analyzing our picks for the game.
Barcelona have had just one game over the previous weekend since facing off against their Inter Milan challengers in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals. May 3 saw the Catalans take on Real Valladolid away, conceding a goal in the first half to Valladolid’s Ivan Sanchez in the sixth minute. One thing remains true for Barcelona though, and it’s that when they concede first, they still pull off the comeback, especially this season. In the second half, Barca heroes Raphinha and Fermin Lopez scored in the 54th and 60th minutes respectively to take the 2-1 lead and finish the game with a crucial three points to keep hold of first place in the La Liga standings and stay four points ahead Real Madrid.
This afternoon will not be easy by any means for the Spanish club, as Inter Milan has proven to be an extremely tough matchup that can score goals at will. On April 30 in the first leg, Inter’s Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries put the team ahead 2-0 with an impressive start against Barca, although it was only a matter of time before both Lamine Yamal would score in the 24th minute and Ferran Torres would equalize in the 38th minute. After conceding a final goal to Dumfries in the 63rd, Barca’s Raphinha scored (marked as an own-goal off Inter’s GK Sommer) with a cracker shot off a corner play from 22 yards out. While Barcelona dominated the game with 19 shots, nine on target, with 72% possession, they’ve shown weakness in defending corner kicks, so if they can lock down all targets off set plays, this one should be Barca’s for the taking, and we think Raphinha has another goal in him this afternoon.
Inter hasn’t been scoring nearly as many goals as Barcelona in their domestic league (Serie A) throughout the season as they’d tuck away just one goal from a penalty kick scored by Kristjan Asllani in the 9th minute against Verona in their most recent 1-0 win on May 3 to sit just three points behind first-place Napoli. While they’re closing in on top spot, it will take a slip-up from Napoli in the remaining three games of the season, although Inter is sure to finish in Serie A this season in second at the very least.
While we would’ve predicted Inter Milan to struggle against Barcelona for the majority of the first leg, that was hardly the case on the scoreline. Inter’s Marcus Thuram scored the fastest goal in Champions League semifinals history, scoring a sweet behind-the-leg flick just 30 seconds in to take a vital 1-0 lead. Denzel Dumfries shockingly added to the tally with a bicycle kick inside the six-yard box off a header from his teammate to net the 2-0 insurance goal, although, with Barcelona’s firepower up front, it was only a matter of time before they’d allow some goals to hit the back of the net. Denzel Dumfries scored an important goal to lead 3-2 in the 63rd minute off a corner kick header, just before Yan Sommer would push a blasted shot from Barca’s Raphinha off the crossbar, only for the ball to bounce down off his back in into the net (nothing he could do about it). Inter will most certainly be out-possessed this entire match, as the last game saw 683 passes with 72% possession go to Barca, and 271 passes with 28% possession go to Inter, although this will hardly affect their game plan of being the bigger and more physical side on the attack, especially on set plays.
While it’s a really tough prediction to make since both teams are in incredible form, Barcelona has nothing but raw talent on the field and the bench. Their weakness in this one will come from 2 factors; missing the pace of Alejandro Balde at left-back, and man-marking taller opponents on corners. Even if Inter scores early in this one, Barca just won’t go down without a fight and we expect the team to be led by Raphinha with at least one more goal to add to his UCL campaign.
With Barcelona sitting top of La Liga and having taken home the Copa Del Rey trophy against Real Madrid along with the Spanish Super Cup, the Catalan club will have their eyes set on the quadruple this season. We expect them to go through in regulation, OT, or penalties against Inter no matter the cost, to face off against the winner of PSG and Arsenal (tomorrow) in the Champions League final.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.