FC Barcelona and Inter Milan took the spectators through a roller coaster ride as they met in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final last night.
The Italians had gone two goals up by the 21st minute, but the Blaugranes managed to overcome this deficit with goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres. The Nerazzurri once again took the lead in the second half, but the Catalans once again did not need long to level the scores with a thunderous strike from Raphinha.
Barcelona defenders slip twice in crucial moments
Ultimately, the two teams left Montjuic with everything to fight for in the second leg. However, as Mundo Deportivo has noted, had it not been for two unfortunate moments in the game, Barcelona could have gone into this second leg in a significantly better position.
These two unfortunate moments were the slips suffered by Inigo Martinez and Jules Kounde. The Spaniard was the first to experience his fall, in an action which ended with Marcus Thuram’s goal only a few seconds into the game.
The second slip from Jules Kounde, who also suffered an injury in this game, came when Inter Milan were taking their first corner, and this slip caused him to lose the player he was marking, with disastrous results for Barcelona.
Reason for the slips
The report has blamed the practice of watering the pitch between the warm-up and the kick-off to be responsible for these slips. Unfortunately for the Blaugranes, it was their players who experienced the negative effects of this practice, and Inter Milan took full advantage of these slips to score two crucial goals.
Furthermore, Hansi Flick’s men were also unable to take many lessons from the tie between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. In the second leg, the Italians had scored two goals from corners when the Bavarians had them on the ropes, and the Catalans could not avoid a similar fate last night as they conceded goals from the first two corners that the Nerazzurri got.
