Italian football club giant, Inter Milan, has ended the Spanish club, Barcelona, run in the 2024-2025 UEFA champions league after proceeding to the final with a 7-6 goal aggregate after the end of 210 minutes of play between both teams.
The match was decided by 26-tewar-old Davide Frattesi after scoring a goal at the 99th minute of the extra time to put pressure on Barcelona who were two goals down after the first half of the game.
At the resumption of the game, Barcelona took over the game and scored three goals through Eric García in the 54th minutes, increased the tally to two in the 60 minutes through Dani Olmo’s header and Raphinha increased it to three with less than three minutes to play in the regular hour.
While Barcelona fans were in jubilation mode, Inter Milan produced a dramatic late turnaround to draw the game before the 94th minute and increased it to four to ensure that the game ended 7-6 in their favour, ending the thrilling Champions League semi-final.
With just two minutes of added time left, Inter trailed 3-2 on the night and were heading out when centre-back Francesco Acerbi smashed a cross into the roof of the net to level the tie, the 37-year-old charging around with his shirt off in wild celebrations.
And there were more ecstatic scenes when substitute Davide Frattesi won it for the Italian champions, curling a beautiful left-footed shot into the bottom corner in the first period of extra time before climbing up a security fence to celebrate in front of Inter’s fans.
It means a second Champions League final in three seasons for three-time European champions Inter after two legs of incredible drama which saw 13 goals and a tie turned on its head on several occasions.
Barca were only two minutes away from their first final in 10 years having fought back from 2-0 down – in a similar scenario to the first leg – to lead 3-2 on the night.
Lamine Yamal almost took the game to penalties but was twice denied by superb saves by Yann Sommer as Inter held on to reach the final and spark incredible scenes of celebration.
Inter, who lost 1-0 to Manchester City in the 2023 final, will play either Paris St-Germain or Arsenal at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena on Saturday, 31 May in the 2025 showpiece.
The Gunners head into Wednesday’s second leg in France after losing 1-0 at Emirates Stadium last week.
