Barcelona Vs Inter Milan [3-3] Champions League Semi-Final First Leg 2024/2025 – Tactical Analysis

The UEFA Champions League semi-finals are always a special time of year, as four teams fight for the chance to compete in the final, the most important game of European football.

Two of the biggest names clashed on Montjuíc on Wednesday night in the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys.

The home team, FC Barcelona, are coming off a superb week, winning the Copa del Rey just a couple of days ago in El Clásico against Real Madrid.

The Catalans under Hansi Flick are also leading La Liga by a four-point margin, meaning that the club is competing for the treble in this final part of the season.

Inter Milan, as the away team, had a bit of trouble last week, losing all three games they had.

These three losses saw Simone Inzaghi and his men lose their lead in the Serie A table to Napoli and Antonio Conte.

To make matters worse, Internazionale lost their derby in the cup against AC Milan, getting eliminated in the process.

Therefore, Hansi Flick and his men were favoured in this first leg of the second semi-final, but not by a huge margin.

However, after eliminating FC Bayern with their tactics earlier this month, Inter Milan were known to be a dangerous foe in these games.

In this tactical analysis and post-match analysis, we will examine the tactics used by the two coaches, how the teams shaped up, and how the game turned out to be an absolute highlight of the season.

Barcelona Vs Inter Milan Players & Formations

Under Hansi Flick tactics, FC Barcelona plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation nearly every game; the German coach did not change his approach on Wednesday.

Marc-André ter Stegen is on his way back after injury, but Flick decided that Wojciech Szczęsny would get the start in the Champions League game.

The back four consisted of Iñigo Martínez, the left centre-back, paired with Pau Cubarsí, his partner on the right side.

Jules Koundé started on the right defensive side, and Gerard Martín played as the left-back.

In midfield, Flick once again trusted his double pivot, which consisted of captain Frenkie de Jong and Spanish superstar Pedri. After coming back from injury, Dani Olmo played as the attacking midfielder.

In attack, a very in-form Raphinha started on the left side. Young starlet Lamine Yamal started as the right winger, flanking Ferrán Torres, who played as the lone striker.

Under Simone Inzaghi tactics, Inter play with a back three, showing a different preference compared to Flick.

Yann Sommer once again started in goal, with Alessandro Bastoni playing as the left centre-back, Francesco Acerbi playing in the centre of the back-three, and Yann Aurel Bisseck playing on the right in place of the injured Benjamin Pavard.

Federico Dimarco once again started on the left, with Dutch international Denzel Dumfries playing on the opposite side.

In midfield, Hakan Çalhanoğlu played as the holding midfielder, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Nicolò Barella playing as the two central midfielders.

The heart of this Internazionale team is their two-man strike partnership with captain Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram headlining the attack for Inzaghi in a 3-5-2 formation.

Barcelona Positional Play Tactics

The game started off in a way that couldn’t have gone better for Inter Milan.

After just 38 seconds, Thuram finished off a cross from Dumfries with a backheel shot, giving the Italians the lead early in the game.

While it was expected that Inzaghi’s men would give up possession to Barcelona anyway, this goal facilitated that development early on.

From then on, Inter Milan began to defend in a very deep position.

Hansi Flick and his players now had the task of finding solutions against a very solid deep block.

They, therefore, had to break down Internazionale’s formation through their passing game and positional play.

The entire identity of the club is their play in possession.

With managers like Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola making a lasting impact at the club, the team today also needs to be elite with the ball to stand a chance against the judgment of fans and the board.

Instead of staying in their 4-2-3-1 formation, Flick had his men adopt a more traditional Barcelona 4-3-3 shape.

As the attacking midfielder, Dani Olmo often dropped out wide into the half-spaces or even to the wing on the near side of the ball, which overloaded that part of the field.

Inzaghi had his team defend the centre of the field in their deep block as the biggest priority in this game; therefore, Olmo was getting away from the areas where the most players were crowding the space.

Another thing Flick did against Inter Milan’s condensed centre block was to always have width in the attacking line.

In the picture above, we can see both Yamal and Raphinha staying out near the sideline, dragging the defensive line apart.

This also allowed Torres to make more runs behind the defensive line or drop back into the space between the lines, both things the Spanish striker thrives in.

Flick gave his team two additional options to create opportunities against the deep block from here on out.

The centre of the field might be crowded, but it’s still the most important part of the field while attacking, and therefore, Barcelona never was interested in completely vacating it in this game.

Flick had his midfielders and Torres create a diamond in the centre of the field, allowing for multiple passing options at all times and rotations between the players right in the heart of Inter Milan’s formation.

Most of the Spanish side’s players are elite technical players anyway, and this tactical measure gave them the opportunity to show off their class in the combinations.

At the same time, Flick was also trying to get his wingers involved.

Raphinha and Yamal have arguably been FC Barcelona’s best players this season, at least in the Champions League, so Flick knew he had to give them touches.

The way they did it was relatively simple: they let their full-back push forward, and their winger drop back a bit.

This quick interchange of positions allowed their wingers to receive the ball wide open multiple times, which led to Yamal creating two goals in the first half.

Another fascinating thing was their movement and positional play after losing the ball.

Flick’s teams are always pressing teams, and his side played a very aggressive counter-press in this game as well.

After winning the ball, they prioritised keeping it with the first pass.

Then, they had a huge presence in their attacking line, with two players staying out wide and four players making runs in the centre.

This allowed for multiple good attacks after high regains for Barcelona in this game, which helped them fight their way back into the game.

Inter might have taken a 2-0 lead after Dumfries’ goal, but Barcelona always controlled the game.

They managed to keep possession and got their best players involved, leading to them coming back from the deficit to tie the game up at half-time.

Lamine Yamal was especially crucial, scoring a great goal himself and then playing a great pass towards Raphinha to create the second goal.

Inter Milan was never able to get to him in time.

Barcelona High Line Defensive Tactics

As we all know, this incredibly high defensive line was the most talked-about tactical measure that Hansi Flick brought to Barcelona after taking over in the summer of 2024.

The Catalans’ aggressive offside trap decided the first El Clásico of the campaign, in particular, and it has been a key part of their games ever since.

Despite Inter Milan’s deadly counterattacks, Barcelona stayed true to its identity and maintained its high line.

While this prevents passes behind the defensive line by making the striker ineligible to receive the ball as a first step, this tactical measure has another huge effect that Flick’s team is often able to capitalise on.

Barcelona also uses its high line to condense the space, allowing it to press more efficiently than other teams.

Here, we can see Barcelona’s high defensive line.

Inter Milan was able to play past the first line of press.

Dimarco on the left and Thuram in the centre were moving towards the goal behind the defensive line.

They moved forward just a couple of steps and now played them both offside.

This leaves the Inter player crowded with no passing options downfield and puts him in a 1v4 situation on the wing, where he can’t find a solution.

This leads to a backwards pass on the wing, and Barcelona’s press is now triggered.

Yamal can chase the ball without hesitation, Frenkie de Jong can cut off the centre of the field, and the other players can cut off the passing lanes towards the other centre-backs.

This leaves Inter Milan’s defender with no option to pass the ball securely or to progress the ball.

Yamal can now get to the ball and intercept it with a sliding tackle, leading to a high recovery, starting with their high backline.

This leads to a dangerous counterattack now, where Barcelona can catch Internazionale out of position and outside their deep block.

Raphinha can collect the ball and dribble towards the opposing backline, with Yamal and Torres making good runs in the space behind the defenders.

Raphinha now plays a pass against the defenders’ direction of movement and finds Torres, who is not able to finish off this opportunity.

Still, their high defensive line did not just prevent the through ball at the start of the situation; it also enabled their press and allowed for a high regain, leading to a very good chance for the team.

Inter Milan Tactics Vs Barcelona High Line

Barcelona were able to use their high defensive line and offside-trap to their advantage a lot of the time this season, but it also comes with some big risks.

Simone Inzaghi had a clear plan to attack this tactical measure on counterattacks, and Inter Milan were able to overcome the high line multiple times in this game.

For the first part, Internazionale were always ready to provoke the Barcelona defenders to step up and try to play their offside trap.

Thuram and Martínez, especially in the attacking centre, often forced runs behind the defensive line to provoke the offside trap.

Here, we can see a situation just after the second half started, where Barça are setting up an offside trap.

Thuram and Martínez in the centre are making runs behind the defensive line, triggering the Barcelona defenders to hold their depth and stay in line.

At the same time, centre-back Bisseck started his run from a deeper position, forcing the full-back into a 2v1 situation and breaking free onside for a run behind the defensive line.

Dumfries could now play an easy pass towards his run, and Bisseck was through on goal.

Bisseck was now in a crossing position, and the Barcelona offside trap obviously played a key part in their inability to defend the space behind their backline.

However, it also had another downside for Blaugrana here.

Martínez and Thuram are now on the far side of the ball.

While they were played offside in the first part of the situation, after the pass towards Bisseck, they are now behind the ball and, therefore, onside.

Both of them, as well as Dimarco on the wing, were now able to make uncovered runs into the box because they had a couple of metres of lead over the Spanish defenders and could get off a shot without any pressure, even though Dimarco missed in this particular situation.

Later in the game, Inter Milan used this pattern of play again; this time, Bisseck got Dumfries behind the backline after Thuram triggered the offside trap, and the other players were also uncovered on the far side.

This led to a goal by Mkhitaryan, but the Armenian was just ahead of the ball with the tip of his toes, and the goal was called back.

Inter still managed to score after a corner, and Barcelona got back on track with a great shot from distance by Raphinha.

The game ended in a 3-3 draw, but both teams created even more good opportunities for themselves.

Conclusion

In the end, both teams managed to play out their strengths and were able to create their opportunities this way.

Barcelona and Hansi Flick need to be happy about how Lamine Yamal played.

They created chances against the Italian side’s deep block, but on the other hand, they now need to worry about Inter Milan’s ability to punish them for their aggressive approach to the ball.

Simone Inzaghi, on the other hand, can be very happy about his team’s resilience and the way their counterattack plan worked out.

However, they need to be careful with their deep block because the Spaniards were able to create too many chances for Inzaghi to be happy.

The draw was a relatively fair result in a very entertaining game in which both teams showed why they belonged in this semi-final.

Barcelona is now a bit on the back foot after not winning their home game, but with how these teams played, the second leg will be just as interesting as this one, and everything is on the table.

For Barcelona, being more aware of their work against the ball will be very important.

While the draw was a fair result, they were in control for most of the game, and giving away the two early goals was a bit unnecessary.

For Inter and Inzaghi, the second leg will be about compensating for their injured players.

Now that Lautaro Martínez is the next key player to miss the game, the Italians will have difficulty reaching their peak performance.