Barcelona 1-0 Inter, The Maginot Line Holds.
Last night’s game said a lot about how far Inter Milan have come. The Champions League had always been unfamiliar territory for the Nerazzuri, an arena where they always failed to take the next step. However, in Barcelona, at the Camp Nou, Europe’s largest stadium with a capacity of 98,000+, Inter Milan’s Maginot Line held strong. The victory, 3-2 on aggregate against Barcelona means that Inter will play in the Champions League final for the first time in 38 years. The last time was in Rotterdam in 1972 against Johan Cruyff’s Ajax, a game that Inter ended up losing 2-0.
At the Camp Nou Inter were forced to play with 10 men for over an hour after Thiago Motta was sent off. The Nerazzuri lost 1-0 but held out to go through to the final 3-2 on aggregate. Barcelona threw everything they had at the Inter Milan defence, yet the Blaugrana continuously hit the brick wall that had been erected by Lucio and Samuel. The two centre backs put in monumental performances along with the majority of the Inter team. The last 15 minutes of the match was a complete siege on the Inter goal, the Camp Nou became and infernal cauldron, the noise at times even drowned out the voices of the television commentators. Nevertheless the Nerazzuri were able to hold out, this is solely down the incredible discipline and sacrifice shown by Jose Mourinho’s players. An example of this was Samuel Eto’o’s performance; in the 77th minute he tracked Bojan’s back post run to perfection in order to deny the young Spaniard a great goal scoring opportunity. It is not often that one sees a centre forward doing a left back’s job in international football these days, but this was what Eto’o and Milito did all night at Camp Nou.
In fact, the Cameroonian striker’s desire is key to Inter’s success this season. With Samuel Eto’o in the side, the Nerazzuri play a completely different style of football to that played last season. Ibrahimovich did not sacrifice himself the way Eto’o does, and one can be certain that if that exchange had not taken place, Inter Milan would have been knocked out, and we would all be talking about the possibility of Barcelona being the first team to retain the Champions League since Sacchi’s AC Milan.
Instead, we are singing Inter Milan and Jose Mourinho’s praise, and rightfully so. His side produced a truly incredible display; defensively it was one of the best performances you will ever witness. It was not a pure Italian ‘Catenaccio’ until the last 15 minutes of the match. Prior to that Inter Milan simply held a high defensive line with brilliant discipline and completely suffocated Barcelona’s playmakers. This meant the Blaugrana often resorted to long balls aimed at Ibrahimovich, as their usual through balls were being regularly intercepted by the always-aware Inter Milan back four. This tactic meant that until the final fifteen minutes when tiredness began to show, Inter Milan were able to play without too many threats being created by the Catalan side. It is fair to say, that although Inter Milan certainly had a little bit of luck over the two legs, they ultimately deserve their place in this year’s UEFA Champions League final.
