Inter denies Lamine Yamal and Barça a victory in a 3-3 win

FC Barcelona and Inter Milan drew 3-3 in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League in a dramatic, tense, and dramatic match where both sides had periods of dominance and outstanding performances, leaving everything to play for in the second leg next week at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milan.

With Lamine Yamal as their standard bearer and star player, the Culé team dominated and subdued Inzaghi's Inter for long stretches of the match, forcing the Neroazurri defense to retreat thirty meters from the Swiss Sommer, who was one of the most outstanding players of the match. However, it was the Italians, playing in a 3-5-2 formation, who first managed to exploit the defensive weaknesses of Flick's team, especially from the lane of Dutchman Denzel Dumfries, who set up Frenchman Marcus Thuram just at the start of the match for a 1-0 lead.

The goal came just 30 seconds in. Inter, true to its style, used Lautaro Martínez to hold up the ball in midfield, setting up Barella to launch Dumfries down the right flank. The wing-back reached the byline and sent in a low cross toward Dimarco, which was cleared. But the Dutchman was there to recover the rebound, sent the ball back into the box, and this time it was delicately flicked by Thuram, who beat Iñigo Martínez to the ball and slotted it past Szczęsny.

Barcelona looked to react quickly through Lamine Yamal, who concentrated play down the left wing. The young Spanish winger managed to generate early danger with a firm, direct cross to Ferran Torres, who nearly equalized from the edge of the box.

But Inter, though sitting deep, managed to withstand Barça’s pressure and break the lines through the speed of Thuram and Dumfries.

At the 21-minute mark, just as Barça seemed to be warming up, Inzaghi’s side once again made it into the final third and won a corner on the left. Dimarco—who had been struggling against Yamal—sent in an outswinger that veteran Francesco Acerbi headed back across goal. Dumfries was waiting, and with an acrobatic finish from close range, he made it 0–2.

Yamal’s siege

From that point on, Lamine Yamal, supported by Pedri, led a relentless siege against an Inter side that had no choice but to defend, defend, and defend some more.

With a supernatural slalom run and an almost unthinkable finish, Yamal needed just three minutes to cut the deficit and begin a 20-minute period of dominance for the Catalans.

Barça kept up the assault, with Yamal attacking Dimarco over and over, forcing saves from Sommer and even hitting the crossbar. But it was Ferran Torres—substituting for the injured Robert Lewandowski—who equalized in the 38th minute. Raphinha delivered an assist with a header off a cross from Pedri, and Torres calmly finished to make it 2–2. Barcelona nearly completed the comeback before the break, but once again found themselves denied by Sommer in goal.

Inter’s resurrection

Everything changed in the second half. Inter Milan, looking shaken without their captain Lautaro Martínez (subbed off due to injury), found a way to survive the Catalan storm.

Bastoni, Acerbi, and Bisseck pulled the team out from the back, and once again, Thuram, Barella, and Dumfries led the Nerazzurri counterattacks—until the Dutchman, on another corner kick, outmuscled his marker and nodded home to make it 3–2.

Despite being on the back foot, Inter held firm against Barça’s waves of attack, which once again depended almost exclusively on Yamal, who was unstoppable for Dimarco, Bastoni, and Carlos Augusto. Unfortunately for the Italians, a rocket shot from Raphinha hit the post, bounced off Sommer’s back, and trickled into the net to level the score at 3–3.

Even so, the second half was filled with suspense until the very end. Not only did Inter hold on defensively, but they also created enough chances to take the win—most notably in a brilliant counterattack finished by Henrikh Mkhitaryan (the player who covered the most ground in the match), only for VAR to call it back for a razor-thin offside and save Barça from defeat.

Yamal had another chance near the end of the match, once again rattling the crossbar. Inter, meanwhile, had to endure the final stretch without Dumfries and Thuram, who were physically worn out by the time they were subbed off.

Now, everything will be decided in Milan. But for an Inter side that came into this match on a three-game losing streak—having surrendered the top spot in Serie A and been knocked out of the Coppa Italia—Montjuïc may have become the unexpected site of their rebirth.