Inter Milan surprises Barcelona, 3-1
Jose Mourinho continues to amaze.
The Portuguese coach of Inter Milan might not be going to South Africa this summer, but there will be few World Cup-bound coaches who will not have paid very close attention to what he achieved Tuesday night in Milan, Italy.
There, in front of an enthralled crowd of 83,000 at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, Inter found a way to stifle not only the world’s top player, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, but also the world’s top team, Barcelona.
The outcome was a 3-1 European Champions League semifinal victory for the Italian champions that left Inter Milan only 180 minutes away from its first European triumph in 45 years.
The last time that the club won the continent’s biggest prize, in 1965, Mourinho was only 2 years old.
“It isn’t a dream, it is real,” Mourinho said afterward. “We have beaten the best team in the world.”
Barcelona, which had to endure a 450-mile journey by road to Italy because the Iceland volcano has grounded flights in Europe, now faces an uphill task at its Camp Nou stadium when the second leg is played in Spain on April 28.
The defending champion not only has to put at least two goals past Inter but also keep Mourinho’s team scoreless. On Tuesday, that was impossible.
“I’m not a doctor so I couldn’t say if the journey affected us,” Barcelona Coach Pep Guardiola said. “The result wasn’t good and we lost the ball too often. Today wasn’t our best game.”
The winner of the series will advance to the May 22 final in Madrid against the winner of the other semifinal series, between Bayern Munich and Olympique Lyon, which begins Wednesday.
The lessons came fast and furious Tuesday in an absorbing game in which the final score was a trifle deceiving. Not least of the lessons were these two:
--Messi is not invincible, especially if he is hounded by fellow Argentines such as defender Walter Samuel and midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, who know him well, and especially if he runs into a first-class goalkeeper such as Brazilian No. 1 Julio Cesar.
Cesar, ranked among the top three ‘keepers in the world, did superbly well to deny Messi on the two occasions he managed to get a clear strike on target.
— Brazil’s defense might be vulnerable in South Africa, especially if the first- and second-choice right backs, Maicon and Dani Alves, continue to pay more attention to their offensive forays down the flank than to their defensive duties.
Maicon was woefully at fault for the opening goal, allowing Barcelona’s Maxwell to take the ball all the way to the end line before cutting it sharply back for Pedro to drive into the net in the 19th minute.
To its credit, Inter didn’t falter but instead carried the game to Barcelona. It was rewarded 11 minutes later when Alves made a similar mistake to Maicon. He was drawn out of position and that left Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder unmarked and able to score easily from close range.
It was still 1-1 at the half, but the Inter Milan team — without an Italian player on the field until Mario Balotelli came on as a substitute for the final quarter of an hour — grabbed control in the second 45 minutes.
Diego Milito got in behind the Barcelona defense three minutes after the break and passed the ball to Maicon, who steered it home with a deft touch, thereby making amends for his earlier defensive error.
Inter went 3-1 ahead in the 61st minute when Sneijder burst into the penalty area to head the ball toward the net. His effort was off-target, but Milito snuck in and finished the job.
Milito appeared to be offside, but Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca allowed the goal to stand and, despite a furious final 15 minutes by Barcelona, Inter secured the victory.
“We started with a goal but we didn’t play enough football in the first half,” Guardiola said. “We didn’t move the ball with passion.”
Mourinho, meanwhile, said he was disappointed in Barcelona’s reaction to the loss.
“After the match I saw some things in the players’ tunnel that show me what it is I must expect next week,” he said. “I saw Barcelona players trying to put pressure on the referee. . . . Why can Barcelona not act like champions and accept they lost to a team that played better?”
The second leg promises to be even more dramatic than Tuesday’s game.
