Lamine Yamal shines in the Champions League semi-final

Barcelona and Inter draw in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals in an outstanding display of football from both sides.

If football needed a reason to exist, it would be for us to witness games like this one. If football needed another reason to exist, it would be for us to enjoy players like Lamine Yamal. Very few times football audiences would unanimously agree on something, but it might not be an exaggeration to say that they might agree on having seen one of the best individual performances by a player on a Champions League semi-final. 

Following Tuesday’s exciting but tight Arsenal–PSG game, this FC Barcelona-Inter Milan would be another match worth of the same two adjectives. The key difference, a massive one, would be the scoreline. While the game between the English and the French ended in a short 0-1 (scored by ex-Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele), the match between blaugranas and neoazurri saw six goals in total scored for an even 3-3.

It would not take more than 30 seconds for Barcelona to suffer from its first setback. In a very direct play from Inter de Milan, right wingback Denzel Dumfries crossed the ball into the box. After a deflection from Jules Koundé, the ball arrived at Nicolò Barella’s feet, who gave it back to Dumfries for him to cross it once again. This time, the person who received the ball was the striker Marcus Thuram (son of former Barcelona player Lilian Thuram), who surprised everyone with a spectacular backheel goal.

The second Italian goal would come from a corner taken by Federico Dimarco. The ball reached Francesco Acerbi, who headed it towards the goal without enough strength. That was the moment when Dumfries appeared with an acrobatic overhead kick to put the ball in the back of the net.

It was 0-2 and Barcelona started seeing ghosts from the past. However, this is the present and the present belongs to no other than Lamine Yamal. When the pitch was tilting against the cules, Yamal tilted it back on his own. Inter’s left side, comprised of Mkhitaryan, Dimarco and Bastoni, could only see him as he dodged everyone to score Barcelona’s first goal with the easiness of the greatest footballers of the past. Another notable goal opportunity would come from him leaving Dimarco on the ground after a series of feints and a bicycle, cutting inside and shooting without much angle. Only Yann Sommer and the crossbar kept Yamal’s fire from completely burning Inter’s defense.

He would create chance after chance, leading his teams towards the goal and then, another magician, Pedri, appeared to put the ball into the box for Raphinha to head it towards Ferran Torres. Like in the Copa del Rey final, he equalized the game.

The second half had Dumfries strike once again thanks to another corner kick. The Dutchman jumped above everyone else and with some luck from a bounce on Ronald Araujo’s shoulder, he scored Inter’s third goal.

But if Barcelona was proving something this season, it was its capacity to retaliate. Two minutes after the 3-2, Dani Olmo would play a low ball from the corner to the edge of the box, where Raphinha was waiting to kick a ball that would hit the crossbar, bounce on Sommer’s back and go straight into the net.

In the end, Barcelona would enjoy more chances throughout the game, but the crossbar and an impressive performance by Sommer would deny Lamine Yamal (for a second time) and Raphinha more goals. Inter de Milan would also have another goal disallowed due to an offside from Mkhitaryan.

Both teams demonstrated to be two of the strongest teams in Europe and gave us a match that fans will remember in case any of them lift up the Champions League trophy. It also gave us what might arguably be Yamal’s best game in his short career the day he played his 100^th match with FC Barcelona. The future shines bright for him, but he is also making sure the present is as shining. Even Inter Milan’s coach, Simeone Inzaghi, admitted ‘’Lamine is a talent that appears every 50 years’’. The second leg will be a much more different match with injuries on both sides (Koundé, Lewandoski and Baldé for Barcelona and Lautaro Martínez for Inter), but if it resembles this one, it will sure be a treat for the fans.