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What was he even doing there, in the 182nd minute of a two-legged tie, a 37-year-old centre-back attacking the opposition’s six-yard box, the furthest man forward on his team? Francesco Acerbi had not scored a goal in more than a year. Heck, he had not scored one in 65 appearances across Uefa club competitions. This is not his job, not the thing he trains for, not a defining moment anyone had predicted for the most entertaining Champions League semi-final ever to unfold.
Or maybe this is the only way it could be. “Pazza Inter Amala” runs the line from Inter’s club anthem. “Crazy Inter, Love Her”. This is not Real Madrid, where “being successful is part of our DNA”, nor Juventus lecturing you that “winning is the only thing that counts”. Inter make sense when they stop making sense. Acerbi – yes, that Acerbi – smashing a striker’s finish into the top corner to make it 6-6 on aggregate and force extra time? Of course. How else did you imagine this could go?
To be clear, we are not talking about luck or random chance. Inter are heading to their second Champions League final in three years because they are one of the very best football teams on the planet. They have players like Lautaro Martínez, who has scored every 85 minutes in this season’s competition, and bagged another, as well as winning a penalty, on Tuesday, just six days after he limped out of the first leg with a hamstring strain. Their manager, Simone Inzaghi, has proven himself to be one of the most tactically sophisticated coaches going, with flexible and ambitious systems that allow players freedom built on trust and communication.
And yet these two games against Barcelona appeared to have arrived at the worst possible moment. Inter ended April losing three domestic games in a row by a combined scoreline of 5-0. Those results cost them top spot in Serie A, as well as eliminating them from the Coppa Italia. The best team in Italy was – still is – at risk of ending this season with no silverware at all.
Being blunt, they looked knackered – worn down by a relentless schedule. Inter’s starting XI against Bayern Munich for the second leg of the quarter-final was the oldest deployed by any team so far in this season’s Champions League, with an average age of 31.1. They are the senior citizens of Serie A too, and have used the fewest players.
With experience, however, a greater self-awareness can emerge. Inter have delivered far better performances under Inzaghi than we saw against Barcelona or Bayern. There were uncharacteristic mistakes: tactical and individual. They conceded as many times in four games as they had in the last two seasons of the competition combined. Yet they were also unshakeable, holding their nerve and responding every time. Away to Bayern, Inter let a lead slip then immediately re-established it through Davide Frattesi. In the return game, Harry Kane’s opener drawing quick-fire replies from Martínez and Benjamin Pavard. Against Barcelona, they went from 2-0 to 2-2 on both occasions, then 3-2 to 3-3 in each direction.
A less determined side would have crumpled when Lamine Yamal was making magic and the stands were shaking in the first leg at Montjuïc. A less unflappable player than Acerbi might let himself be drawn into a self-defeating reaction when Iñigo Martínez appeared to spit in his direction after Hakan Calhanoglu put Inter 5-3 up on aggregate before half-time.
But as the two-time Champions League winning manager Arrigo Sacchi observed recently, the thing that makes this Inter special is the fact this team “has grown up over time”. Seven out of 11 starters on Tuesday were in the team that lined up to face Manchester City in the final two years ago.
Inter know what it takes to win these games because they have been here before. That is an extraordinary reflection on Inzaghi. When he took charge in 2021, they had not played a Champions League knockout game for 10 years. He led them to the last 16 at the first time of asking, losing to Liverpool but winning the away leg at Anfield: a match people connected to the club still often point to as an essential first step.
They have learned the hard way that these moments cannot be taken for granted. Inter were arguably a better team – certainly a more consistent one – last season, but threw away a winning position against Atlético Madrid and went out before the quarter-finals. At full time on Tuesday, Martínez talked about how desperate he had been to play despite his injury, saying he “spent two days crying at home”. Frattesi, who scored the winning goal in extra time, revealed he too had been struggling with an abdominal strain unknown to reporters before the game. “I need to thank the physios,” he said. “I’m dedicating this win and my goal to them.” Frattesi celebrated his goal so hard he almost passed out. “I was lucky to finish the match,” he said. “When I stopped screaming I could only see black.”
Acerbi and Frattesi have had different parts to play at Inter this season; one a starter and leader, the other a player who has struggled to carve out a regular spot since signing from Sassuolo in a €30m deal two years ago. In another way, though, they are two sides of the same coin. Each has spoken candidly about how their grief at the death of family members – Acerbi his father, Frattesi his grandmother – had a knock-on impact on the pitch. One is 12 years older than the other, but both have played this Champions League campaign with the urgency of people who know they might not get another chance as good as this one.
“I’m not an incredible talent,” said Frattesi on Tuesday, “but I never give up. I am the last to give up, and the first to believe.”
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