Inter vs Barcelona: Tenacity Brings Opportunities for Triumph

In 12 games and a cumulative of at least 1,080 minutes, Inter Milan were the defensive kings of Europe keeping a total of eight clean sheets. Resolute, rugged, and rasping, their tight unit became a model for defensive expressions. They conceded only five goals in twelve games.

Over two legs against Barcelona, arguably the best attacking unit in world football at the moment, Inter conceded six goals in 210  minutes. More than they did in their first 12 games in the competition. The colossus was broken time and again in a game that produced 13 goals over two legs, the joint highest-scoring game in a Champions League semi-final.

In the first leg, a Lamine Yamal classic helped Barcelona claw back a hard-earned draw.  It is unusual for Inter to concede three goals and the beauty of how it happened against Barcelona almost made it acceptable for all.

At the San Siro, Inter Milan looked fit for purpose, taking the game to Barcelona early enough and scoring twice in what would typically be a comfortable lead for the Nerazzurri. When they lead, they hardly lose it.

Barcelona sprang to life, rose to the occasion and pushed a once resolute defence to the tip of destruction. Three times, Inter Milan conceded. In thirty-three minutes.

It was beautiful for neutrals to witness — a football classic by every sense of the word. But Simone Inzaghi knew it was unusual. He never stopped shouting, waving, directing. What he didn't do was play.

Inter Milan hardly concede chances. Against Barcelona, they conceded twenty-two and ten were on target. They make teams beg for opportunities but Barcelona carved them out in different forms and manners.

We saw excitement, we witnessed runners who willed their team to perform, time and again. As Yamal threw everything in his armoury to get Barcelona on the up, Denzel Dumfries took the game personally.

Marcus Thuram was as they call players who don't care about who gets the plaudits, ‘the water carrier’ of the team. He ran relentlessly from minute zero and stayed on the shoulder of the Barcelona defenders. He limped yet never left. Put himself in their faces, fought for lost causes.

The game had everything you wanted in football. It reminded us of the reason this game is the most followed in the world. The defending wasn't atrocious, we've probably seen worse yet the attack wasn't exceptional either, we have definitely seen better. Despite that, the weaknesses and flaws combined to give us a true footballing spectacle.

It wasn't robotic, it lacked orderliness, and it was barely predictable. Impulse ruled at the expense of the elite systematic organisation both teams had. Francesco Acerbi had no business where he stood to score that equaliser but there he was. Desire leads you to places.

Sometimes, life doesn't care about these processes. Just show up, fight and run. Do it again.

Inter Milan fell many times, but they rose each time. Barcelona fell behind time and again in both games but showed a spirit you don't see around strolling in European football or outside it.

Both teams were tenacious, spirited and willing to give it all to the cause. So bad that a game has to produce a winner at this stage and perhaps the more tenacious, the luckier, the one who simply failed to give up after rising and falling time and again carried the day.

It was a game that was an experience in itself, one for the memories and the pantheons of history, and importantly, to remind us that doors don't get opened when one doesn't knock.

There's no victory at the highest points of life’s workings without a great amount of relentlessness and resilience. Even in the face of defeat, there is the need to show up. Even when shelled and shattered, Inter still fought, they showed up. And what a spectacle it was.