Davide Frattesi’s extra-time winner sent Inter through to the Champions League final at the expense of Barcelona after one of the most epic European ties in history.
Barca thought they had completed a remarkable comeback against Inter courtesy of an 87th-minute goal from Raphinha. But somehow, the 37-year-old Inter centre-back Francesco Acerbi forced extra time with his finish in the third minute of stoppage time.
Inter had taken the lead through Lautaro Martinez in the 21st minute before Hakan Calhanoglu slotted home a 45th-minute penalty following Pau Cubarsi’s challenge. But Barca responded through an unlikely hero in left-back Gerard Martin, who first crossed for Eric Garcia to cut the difference in the 54th minute and produced an even better delivery for a Olmo header six minutes later.
But Inter succeeded in ending Barca’s treble quest — and will go to Munich for their second Champions League final in three years. With 13 goals over the two legs, it became the joint-highest-scoring tie in the competition.
Here, James Horncastle, Stuart James and Thom Harris break down another crazy semi-final game between the teams.
How did Inter pull this off?
Simone Inzaghi’s side thought they were out. They had conceded three goals without reply, another 2-0 lead wiped out, as at Montjuic a week ago. The oldest squad left in the competition, they looked dead and buried. They needed a Hail Mary.
It came in the form of a long ball. It did not look like it was going to work. When Marcus Thuram won the second ball, he misplaced his pass. But the unstoppable Denzel Dumfries refused to give it up as a long cause.
Barcelona’s nemesis in this tie was not done. On the contrary, he was on hand to undo them again.
Inter captain Martinez was not in the area to finish Dumfries’ cross. Inzaghi had taken off the striker. Instead, Inter’s centre-back Francesco Acerbi turned centre-forward and pressed restart when the game-over credits were rolling.
His goal made it 3-3 and gave every neutral exactly what they wanted — another half hour of this glorious game of football. Inter could have been forgiven for thinking throughout the second half that Barca could not be killed.
Substitutes Mehdi Taremi and Frattesi combined for a logic-defying winner. Goalkeeper Yann Sommer did the rest, getting his hands to shots from Lamine Yamal to keep Barca out. Who knows? The same hands may lift the trophy in Munich.
James Horncastle
Where does this rank among the great Champions League ties?
Just what is it about this competition that consistently produces such madness?
This was the Champions League at its mind-bending best, momentum swinging one way before bulldozing through everything we thought we knew on its way back.
Inter looked deflated as a testing second half wore on, with Raphinha’s late sucker-punch the third goal they conceded without reply after the break. Barely 15 minutes later — after their 37-year-old centre-back scored the stoppage-time equaliser — and they were ahead, taking the lead for the fourth time in 210 senseless minutes.
On goals alone, this tie is among the greats. Only two knockout ties can match the 13 goals Barcelona and Inter mustered up — Liverpool’s 7-6 semi-final win against Roma in 2018, and Bayern Munich’s 12-1 hammering of Sporting CP in the round of 16 a decade before that. But for tension, drama, frenzy and fight, neither came close.
We have seen impossible comebacks over the years — Liverpool’s 4-0 win at Anfield to overturn a three-goal deficit against Barcelona, and Barcelona’s own ‘remontada’ to overturn a four-goal loss in Paris. The 2005 final involved Liverpool heroics, too, the 1999 final saw Manchester United come from behind against Bayern Munich, and what about Lucas Moura’s prodded finish to seal a 3-2 win for Tottenham Hotspur against Ajax?
All of this, without even mentioning the undisputed kings of Champions League comebacks, Real Madrid.
Pick your favourite. Tonight’s epic is right up there with the best.
Thom Harris
Dumfries’ two goals and three assists against Barca
The composure and presence of mind to slide the ball across the penalty area into a centre-forward. An instinctive run into the penalty area from a defence-splitting pass. Five goal contributions across two Champions League semi-final games.
Wing-backs do not normally do this, but watching Dumfries in the context of this tie — a gloriously flawed contest on a thumping, adrenaline-filled night — his effectiveness down the right side began to make sense.
Dumfries is difficult to stop, not only pacy and powerful, but also selective and effective in his forward bursts. His contribution in the dramatic 3-3 draw was more about timing, tiptoeing to stay onside while offering for the diagonal ball behind Barcelona’s high line. Tonight’s pulsating win saw the 29-year-old Netherlands international bide his time and dig in defensively, before finding his moments to race forward in attack.
His assist for Martinez shows just how much attacking freedom Dumfries is given down his flank, already looking to break the last defensive line with a run just seconds after Federico Dimarco turns over the ball. What follows is unselfish — but Dumfries has touched the ball 135 times in the box in league and European football this season. It is hardly unfamiliar ground.
Such positivity can come at a cost — Dumfries was caught wandering up the pitch as Raphinha scored what looked to be a dramatic late winner — but it was his ambition again behind Acerbi’s unlikely equaliser. On chaotic nights like these, sheer forward momentum and unchecked forward thinking bring so much more than it can possibly take away.
Inter hit you hard on the counter — two bustling strikers who can take the ball down, shuttling runs from midfielders, central defenders who get forward well. But few pack a punch quite like Dumfries. His destructive power in a game of second-choice full-backs and high defensive lines is consistently hard to track.
Thom Harris
Was it a penalty on Martinez?
Dare we say it, this was one of those occasions when you could not help but recognise the value of the VAR system.
On first viewing, Barcelona’s 18-year-old defender Cubarsi looked to have made a brilliantly timed sliding challenge on Martinez, the sort of tackle that you applaud — it genuinely looked that good. That was certainly how Szymon Marciniak, the Polish referee, saw things, too. Play carried on with Barcelona on the attack at the other end as Martinez lay in a heap in the Barcelona penalty area.
Pau Cubarsi’s challenge on Lautaro Martinez (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
But on second viewing, with the help of slow-motion replays, everything appeared rather different. Stretching every sinew to make the challenge, Cubarsi actually kicked through Martinez’s right boot — the foot the Inter striker had planted as he prepared to shoot with his left — to get to the ball.
Sent to the monitor by the side of the pitch to review the incident, Marciniak took little time to realise that it was a penalty. The Barcelona players were furious — Marciniak stopped to explain to the central defender, Inigo Martinez, what he had seen, gesturing with his hand to show that Cubarsi had made contact with Martinez first.
“It’s interesting how we talk about VAR because at first glance, it looks like a good challenge,” Mark Clattenburg, the former FIFA and Premier League official, told the UK broadcaster Amazon Prime in his punditry role. “But this is where VAR has changed football so much and this is where it creates so much debate.”
In truth, there was not much debate after watching the footage back.
Stuart James
How did Inter cope with Yamal?
Inter were better from the experience of facing Yamal at Montjuic. Alessandro Bastoni said all the video analysis they did before the first leg counted for little when encountering the real thing. A week later, Inter had more of a feel for the 17-year-old winger.
But that did not stop Yamal from looking like he could do whatever he wanted. Within seconds of kick-off, he played an outside-of-the-foot through ball that briefly had San Siro scared. He kept skipping past Dimarco and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, in particular, with ease.
Federico Dimarco tries to tackle Lamine Yamal (Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images)
Luckily for Inter in the first half, Yamal either stopped himself or his team-mates let him down.
Dani Olmo wasted a wonderful ball in behind, and when Yamal himself entered the box his decision-making was off. He passed instead of taking a shot. A crunching tackle in the box from the excellent Bastoni also let Yamal know he was up against one of the best centre-backs in the world, who seemed to relish the challenge.
Yamal, it must be said, then started the transition on the edge of his own penalty area that almost culminated in Garcia scoring a second of the night before Olmo’s equaliser. He then flew past the newly introduced Carlos Augusto and drew a foul from Bastoni.
Pretty little things that added up to another good performance. Mkhitaryan and San Siro were praying for a VAR check to overrule a penalty won by Yamal — with debate over whether the foul continued into the area. It was marginal and the relief was palpable when it was chalked off. Inter could breathe for a second or two, but Yamal had left his opponents breathless again.
James Horncastle
Barca’s unlikely full-back heroes are not enough
It was a night for unsung heroes for Barcelona — unsung full-backs, even.
Ideally, Jules Kounde would have been starting for Barcelona at right-back and Alejandro Balde at left-back. Both were ruled out through injury.
Step up, Garcia and Martin. Trailing 2-0 against Inter, Barcelona’s two full-backs combined to halve the deficit before Martin delivered a wonderful cross to set up the equaliser for Olmo. Both were superb goals and perfectly timed for a Barcelona side that desperately needed to find a way back into the game.
Martin may have been trying to pick out Olmo with his centre for the first goal. Whether that was the case or not, Garcia arrived just behind his Barca team-mate and emphatically dispatched a side-footed volley, expertly opening his body to steer the ball beyond Sommer and high into the roof of the net. It was a controlled volley and a superb piece of technique.
For UK viewers:
DANI OLMO PUTS BARCA LEVEL 🔥
A free header at the far post means the tie is now tied at 5-5 😱#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/7zpV1fBH1b
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) May 6, 2025
For U.S. viewers:
DANI OLMO MAKES IT 5-5 ON AGGREGATE 🥵 pic.twitter.com/YuyIJvhVb6
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 6, 2025
In stark contrast to his performance in the first leg, when he was withdrawn after 45 minutes, Martin played with confidence and purpose at San Siro, especially in the second half, when he provided an impressive outlet for Barca on the left flank.
Unfortunately for Martin, he was caught out at the other end of the pitch in stoppage time when Dumfries dispossessed him (Barca felt that it was a foul, but the left-back looked a little passive) before crossing for Acerbi to sweep home a 93-minute equaliser.
Stuart James
What did Inter’s players say?
“My heart was beating out of my chest, it’s really incredible,” match-winner Frattesi told CBS after the game. “There will never be another match like that. It’s crazy. My family are all here today and this is something I will tell my kids in the future.
“When we conceded the third goal, I spoke to Marcus Thuram and I said we would go to the final. I don’t know how we then scored the goal. It was crazy.
“I don’t know (how I scored). Maybe it’s because I thought if I don’t score I’m f***ed!”
What did Hansi Flick say?
We’ll bring you his words straight after the post-match press conference.
What next for Inter?
Sunday, May 11: Torino (away), Serie A, 5pm UK, 12pm ET
What next for Barcelona?
Sunday, May 11: Real Madrid (home), La Liga, 3.15pm UK, 10.15am ET
(Top photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)