BARCELONA, Spain — On the backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains to the northwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the east resides the Estadi Olympic de Montjuïc — the current home of FC Barcelona. A stadium that, for many a time, simply sat silently whilst possessing an absolute stunning aerial view of Catalonia’s natural landscape, is now a revived relic that provides the most picturesque product that the ‘beautiful game’ currently has to offer — Hansi Flick’s La Blaugrana.
En route to an exhilarating, as well as head scratching 3-3 draw, last night Flick’s resurgent squad put on an absolute show for the world to see. However, before we wax too lyrically about Barça, we must give Internazionale their just credit. After all, I Nerazzurri popped the champagne bottle, so-to-speak, as Marcus Thuram put the Italian giants ahead inside the opening minute of the match courtesy of a deft back-flicked shot that simply stunned all onlookers.
Then, to follow Thuram’s sublime opening stanza was a scissor kick strike from short range by defender Denzel Dumfries — Dumfries would go on to score twice in the game and be awarded Man of the Match. At this point, everyone’s jaw had dropped in disbelief. It appeared as though Inter Milan didn’t get the memo that center stage had been reserved for Flick & Friends, not the Milanese. With that said, the match was still young — after all, the second goal came at the 21 minute mark.
Speaking of young, it was after Barcelona conceded the second that the teenage sensation, Lamine Yamal, decided to take things into his own hands, or rather his feet I should say. The Catalan-native went video game mode on the competition — Black Mamba style. The 17 year old wunderkind showed the globe who the best footballer on the planet is, regardless of age.
It took all of three minutes after Dumfries strike that Yamal produced a magisterial moment of brilliance to pull Barcelona back within one of Inter. The goal that the La Masia graduate scored included dispossessing an opponent, going on a dazzling-dribbled run — leaving several scared defenders in his wake — and culminating in a wickedly-curling effort that would find the back of the net after clinking off the inside of the far post. It was a thing of pure genius, as Ray Hudson would say. But, Yamal wasn’t done.
Shortly after he scored, Lamine took the ball along his right flank and then cut towards goal — once again leaving Inter defenders off-balance and out of position. Yamal then fired from an acute angle — nearly scoring his second. Goalkeeper Yan Sommers was able to get his fingers onto the incoming shot, which subsequently forced the ball to divert up and off the crossbar.
Yamal would eventually hit the woodwork for a second time — shortly before the match had fully matured. In the end, the youngster finished with the lone goal from his first half conversion, however Lamine was an absolute terror throughout the game’s duration. Heck, the young man even left such an impression from his performance that Internazionale’s manager Simone Inzaghi stated post-game “We had to double up on him. He is a phenomenon born every 50 years. He really impressed me today.”
In totality, Barcelona pounded Inter Milan throughout the 90 minutes — as evidenced by La Blaugrana possessing the ball 72% of the time, as well as out passing I Nerazzurri 683 to 271.
In addition to the possession advantage, Barca outshot Inter by 12 — 19 total shots by Barça to seven for Inter. In fact, and to be more precise, Inter only had three shots on target — fortunately for them, all three crossed the goal line.
Meanwhile, Barcelona produced nine shots on target, including Ferran Torres’s goal — which was assisted by Raphina and built up by Pedri’s word-class cross — as well as Raphina’s wonder strike off the woodwork that ultimately found its way into the back of the net — with a little help from Sommers’s backside.
Needless to say, tonight was a masterclass at the Montjuïc; a performance befitting of its beautiful backdrop. Now onward to the San Siro for next Tuesday’s second-legged spectacle.