Key stats ahead of Inter – Barça clash

Barça travels to Milano to face a difficult Inter side and reach its ninth Champions League final and sixth UCL trophy for the club, and does so trusting their firepower, as Barcelona leads the scoring this season in UCL with 40 goals and is chasing down the record of 45, which was set by the Catalans themselves in the 1999-00 campaign. It is interesting to note that the two seasons with the highest goals per game are two of the three that have featured manager Hans Dieter-Flick, with his Bayern side lifting the trophy in 2019-20, scoring 43 goals along the way (30 in 8 games with him in charge).

Flick has been fortunate enough to work with some of Europe’s top attacking talent in his time in the
competition – including Robert Lewandowski at both clubs – and needs three more goals to reach 100 goals
in the competition as manager. The second leg will be his 32nd game in charge, with 44 games being the current
fewest needed to reach100 goals, achieved by fellow Champions League winners Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane.

Another hugely talented player Flick has at his disposal this season is the silky yet industrious Brazilian
winger Raphinha, who has been at the top of his game, and who can make UCL history. His deft headed assist for Ferran Torres’ equalising goal in the first leg was his 20th goal involvement (12 goals, 8 assists) of the season, becoming only the third player to hit that total in a campaign, along with Cristiano Ronaldo (twice) and Robert Lewandowski. Ronaldo has the record in 2013-14, when he had 17 goals and 4 assists, a milestone Raphinha has in his sights. Only Joshua Kimmich has created more chances than Raphinha this season on 36, and one more assist for the Brazilian would also see him equal the all-time assist record in one season, set by Luís Figo in 1999-00 with
nine with Barcelona.

Lamine Yamal is one of only eight players in this season’s UEFA Champions League (min. 450 minutes)
to average both at least 1.5 fouls won (1.6) and 1.5 shots on target (1.7) per 90 minutes, recording 2+ shots on
target and +2 fouls awarded in three of his previous seven games. A lot of experts mentioned that Pedri’s improvement also came due to his defensive work, and we see that Barça’s midfielder averages three tackles per 90 in the UEFA Champions League this season, making at least two in four of his previous six games.

Inter also has some players standing out statistically, as only four players average more fouls per 90 in the UEFA Champions League this season than Inter’s Denzel Dumfries (2.2 – minimum 450 minutes), making two in the first leg and Marcus Thuram has scored three goals in his last five UEFA Champions League appearances for Internazionale, registering 2+ shots in each of his previous four games.