David Frattesi struck the decisive goal in the 99th minute of extra time to seal Inter Milan\u2019s dramatic 4-3 win over Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final thriller at San Siro on Tuesday, sending the Italians through 7-6 on aggregate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Francesco Acerbi had earlier rescued Inter with a stoppage-time equaliser, cancelling out Raphinha\u2019s late strike that looked set to fire Barcelona into the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raphinha had completed a stunning second-half comeback with goals from Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo drawing the tie level after Barca trailed 2-0 at half-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inter will now face either PSG or Arsenal in the final on May 31 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defender Denzel Dumfries captured the chaos of the night when speaking to Amazon Prime: \u201cA crazy match again! Seven goals today. It was incredible. We fought until the end; very proud of the way we fought today. Overall, I\u2019m very happy that we\u2019re going to the final.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goalkeeper Yann Sommer, named Player of the Match, was equally emotional in his post-match reflections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to Sky Italia, he said: \u201cI\u2019m very happy, we played an incredible match. Which save will I remember? The last one on Lamine Yamal; he is a great player and fortunately it didn\u2019t go in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many teams would have given up after going down 3-2 but we didn\u2019t, and managed to come back.\u201dThe rollercoaster nature of the game left even seasoned commentators breathless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clarence Seedorf, the former Milan and Netherlands midfielder, summed it up: \u201cI think we\u2019ve had enough emotions today! In the first half Inter were supreme, but Barcelona came back, and Inter looked low on energy. But the thing that amazed me is they never give up, and who would have thought they\u2019d be able to score such a late equaliser against Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former England striker Wayne Rooney echoed the sentiment, highlighting Inter\u2019s second wind in the dying stages: \u201cOnce Inter got the equaliser it looked like they were the team that were going to push. Barcelona ran out of ideas at the end. I\u2019m not really quick to praise goalkeepers, but some of those saves Yann Sommer made were excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the heroes of the night was Davide Frattesi, who once again played the role of match-winner. Reflecting on the wild scenes, he exclaimed: \u201cWhat happened? I don\u2019t know! I celebrated so loudly that my head was spinning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later added, drawing parallels to his earlier heroics in Munich: \u201cAfter the game in Munich, I thought I would never experience anything like this again in terms of emotions. But that\u2019s the beauty of football. It\u2019s part of my career; I\u2019ve always been the first to believe and the last to give up. This is a reward for my dedication and commitment. After it went 3-3, I told Marcus [Thuram] that we would go through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Frattesi struck the decisive goal in the 99th minute of extra time to seal Inter Milan\u2019s dramatic 4-3 win over Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final thriller at San Siro on Tuesday, sending the Italians through 7-6 on aggregate. Francesco Acerbi had earlier rescued Inter with a stoppage-time equaliser, cancelling out Raphinha\u2019s late strike that looked set to fire Barcelona into the final. Raphinha had completed a stunning second-half comeback with goals from Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo drawing the tie level after Barca trailed 2-0 at half-time. Inter will now face either PSG or Arsenal in the final on May 31 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. Defender Denzel Dumfries captured the chaos of the night when speaking to Amazon Prime: \u201cA crazy match again! Seven goals today. It was incredible. We fought until the end; very proud of the way we fought today. Overall, I\u2019m very happy that we\u2019re going to the final.\u201d Goalkeeper Yann Sommer, named Player of the Match, was equally emotional in his post-match reflections. Speaking to Sky Italia, he said: \u201cI\u2019m very happy, we played an incredible match. Which save will I remember? The last one on Lamine Yamal; he is a great player and fortunately it didn\u2019t go in. Many teams would have given up after going down 3-2 but we didn\u2019t, and managed to come back.\u201dThe rollercoaster nature of the game left even seasoned commentators breathless. Clarence Seedorf, the former Milan and Netherlands midfielder, summed it up: \u201cI think we\u2019ve had enough emotions today! In the first half Inter were supreme, but Barcelona came back, and Inter looked low on energy. But the thing that amazed me is they never give up, and who would have thought they\u2019d be able to score such a late equaliser against Barcelona.\u201d Former England striker Wayne Rooney echoed the sentiment, highlighting Inter\u2019s second wind in the dying stages: \u201cOnce Inter got the equaliser it looked like they were the team that were going to push. Barcelona ran out of ideas at the end. I\u2019m not really quick to praise goalkeepers, but some of those saves Yann Sommer made were excellent.\u201d Among the heroes of the night was Davide Frattesi, who once again played the role of match-winner. Reflecting on the wild scenes, he exclaimed: \u201cWhat happened? I don\u2019t know! I celebrated so loudly that my head was spinning.\u201d He later added, drawing parallels to his earlier heroics in Munich: \u201cAfter the game in Munich, I thought I would never experience anything like this again in terms of emotions. But that\u2019s the beauty of football. It\u2019s part of my career; I\u2019ve always been the first to believe and the last to give up. This is a reward for my dedication and commitment. After it went 3-3, I told Marcus [Thuram] that we would go through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-and-international-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25063,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061\/revisions\/25063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}