Barcelona bowed out of the Champions League with a classic at San Siro.
For the second time, six goals shared evenly between the two teams left a stalemate at ninety minutes, and the Italians ended up victors on the night, winning 7-6 on aggregate.
Fifteen years on from the fabled exploits of Jose Mourinho, Simone Inzaghi has doled out pain to the Catalans, who can no longer win a treble.
Here are four things we learned from this European epic:
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Yamal already sits with the world’s best
Lamine Yamal lit up the stage in the first leg to lead the comeback for the Catalans. He ended up on the losing side overall, but the teenage sensation continues to capture the hearts of football fans.
The Nerazzurri are a wily outfit and were not going to let him have his way as easily as he did in the transcendent phase of the first half last week. In the first few minutes, it was clear that they wanted to stop the issue at the source and try to limit the number of times that he could receive the ball in the first place. But over two hours of action, that was always going to be an impossible task to complete.
In the end, he completed 14 dribbles on the night. It was the most times that a player has successfully taken on their opponent since Neymar played against Atalanta in 2020: he sits in elite company.
Even for an otherworldly 17-year-old, he still has space to grow in his game. Yamal is still not the most ruthless finisher, and it was somewhat apt that Raphinha appeared to put the team into the final after a quiet night. But when Blaugrana are looking for a leading light, they do not think twice about turning to the teenager, who has an appreciation for ball mastery that few players can dare to rival.
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Young blood plays with no fear
Yamal is the poster boy for a new era at Barcelona backed with the talent of La Masia. This tie was a battle between youth and experience and the Catalans conveyed the two faces of an all-out approach.
Inter Milan moved through their press too easily at times last week, but Hansi Flick was not willing to compromise on his principles. He held onto his belief in the high line and extreme offside trap, and almost any time that the Italians got over the halfway line, they were able to threaten in behind.
They paid the price with two goals that could have kicked them out of the tournament. But this team, profiting from the freshness of youth, has an uncanny ability to wipe such memories from their minds.
Gerard Martín, a much-maligned figure in the squad, as a deputy for Alejandro Balde, was a prime example. He was guilty of giving away the ball in the buildup for the second strike for the hosts, but stood out in this fightback. The 23-year-old chalked up two assists, one of which was for a volley from fellow fullback Eric Garcia, and the quality of his deep deliveries was a pleasant surprise.
The squad will now have to heal from their first serious scar but if they can hold onto the unrelenting belief that they have in their style of play, it will stand them in good stead for success in the future.
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Deep defending as Barcelona’s kryptonite?
Critics continue to ask why Flick feels so strongly about a high line that takes a big risk at the elite level. The final couple of blows at the back for Barcelona might give something of an explanation.
If teams can break their offside trap, forwards can exploit big spaces in the final third. But Barcelona, at least, can avoid having to sit deeper thanks to this approach because they try to restrict the play to about half of the field. Once they have to fall back, they appear to encounter a few problems.
Ronald Araujo received heavy criticism after the loss. He came out second best to Francesco Acerbi in injury time as the defender drilled an equaliser into the roof of the net and then lost out to Marcus Thuram in the buildup to the winning strike from Davide Frattesi. But he would not be the first defender to be responsible for making mistakes in his box that have cost the Catalans in recent times.
Only last week, Jules Koundé clumsily cleared a cross into the box that allowed Inter to open the scoring inside the first minute in the first leg. Serhou Guirassy grabbed a hat trick of close-range strikes in the second leg of the quarter-final: a troubling 3-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund. The signs of leakages have been there and the Nerazzurri are pragmatic enough to take advantage of them.
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Squad strains took their toll
Over the two legs, there were fine margins that split the sides and squad availability was one of them.
One of the reasons that the Catalans had lost momentum in the second half last week was because of the demands on their back four. Koundé came off with an injury that forced him to miss the match at San Siro, and Barcelona were without either of their first-choice fullbacks for most of this tie. The role of Denzel Dumfries, dominant in duels, was one of the decisive factors for the Italians' success.
At the other end of the field, they had also missed their main marksman, Robert Lewandowski, for most of the tie. The striker was absent with a hamstring injury, and Ferran Torres took his place through the middle. Even though he scored in the first leg, he paled into the background last night with only one shot to his name before he made way for the Pole at the end of the ninety minutes.
Again, Inter Milan had the upper hand here. Lautaro Martinez made his way back from a flexor issue to score the first goal and earn the penalty for the second. When Mehdi Taremi took the place of the captain, the Argentine was not missed, and he assisted the goal for Frattesi in extra time.
Flick can only hope to make the most of the time in his hands to recuperate ahead of El Clásico.
