Inter Milan Vs Barcelona [4-3] Champions League Semi-Final Second Leg 2024/2025 – Tactical Analysis

Usually, the games in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals dont offer a lot of highlights or goals.

This year, we got a tie that changed things up massively from start to finish.

Inter Milan and Barcelona came to San Siro after an incredible 3-3 draw at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys a week ago.

Both teams scored beautiful goals, showed off their world-class players, and showed out on the biggest stage possible.

For Inter Milan, recent weeks have not been too kind.

Not only did they lose a couple of players to injury, like Benjamin Pavard, but they also lost three games in a row in the league.

Therefore, their lead over SSC Napoli has narrowed, and they currently only sit in second place.

However, Simone Inzaghi and his men are returning to the UEFA Champions League final after losing to Manchester City in 2023.

Hansi Flick and his Barcelona side are still leading La Liga and are the big favourites to win the Spanish top flight this season.

Unlike Inter, FC Barcelona have not been to a Champions League final in the last couple of years and wanted to change that narrative.

Still, the Blaugrana were not necessarily happy about the first leg.

While they managed to play good football and come back from an early 0-2 deficit, not winning their home game really was not what the Catalans wanted to see.

In this tactical analysis and post-match analysis, we will examine the second leg of Inter Milan Vs Barcelona.

We will examine the tactics the two coaches used after a week of preparation, which players and positions were key to success, and how the game was even greater than last weeks.

Inter Milan Vs Barcelona Lineups & Formations

Looking at Inter, we don’t need to spend a lot of time examining the personnel decisions for this game.

Simone Inzaghi trusted his usual starting XI with just one major change due to Pavards injury.

Yann Sommer started in goal with three centre-backs in front of him: Alessandro Bastoni on the left, Francesco Acerbi in the centre and Yann Aurel Bisseck on the right.

Once again, the two wing-backs were Federico Dimarco on the left side and Denzel Dumfries, Inter’s MVP from the first game, on the right-hand side.

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

In attack, Inzaghi was lucky enough for his captain to recover from injury in time for the game.

He once again started the best two-man strike partnership in European football at the moment, with Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram in the centre of attack of their 3-5-2 formation.

Due to injuries, Hansi Flick needed to make changes, but he once again stayed true to his 4-2-3-1 formation.

Wojciech Szczęsny still fills in in goal for Marc-André ter Stegen, with a back four consisting of Gerard Martín as left back, Iñigo Martínez as left centre-half, Pau Cubarsí as right centre-half in the middle, and Eric García filling in at right-back for the injured Jules Koundé.

In midfield, Flick was able to count on his usual double pivot: captain Frenkie de Jong and Spanish international Pedri playing in the central part of the midfield, and Dani Olmo coming into the starting line-up as the attacking midfielder.

In the attack, Flick refused to change after his front-threes great offensive performance, so Raphinha played as the left winger, Lamine Yamal as the right winger, and Ferrán Torres as the lone striker.

Inter Milan Defending Vs Lamine Yamal

While Inter Milan took an early lead last week, they could not hold onto that and were generally pushed backwards by Barcelona for most of the game.

This week, not a lot changed about that general way of the game.

Hansi Flick’s men were trying to dominate possession and create chances from the get-go to put pressure on the Italian champions, but unlike last week, Inter were able to hold their own against the waves of attack.

Last week, it didn’t even take Barcelona until half-time to get back to level with Inter Milan, and Simone Inzaghi worked out the reasons for that in the last seven days.

Last week, the key player for Flick was definitely Lamine Yamal.

The 17-year-old Spanish winger created opportunity after opportunity for the Blaugrana in the first leg, and Internazionale had no answer in that game.

This week, they changed their approach to defending Yamal, and while there is no way to take a player like him out of the game, Inter contained him way better than last week.

First, they changed the zones where Yamal was allowed to receive the ball.

Compared to the first leg, the Spanish winger had to drop much deeper to collect his teammates passes and was, therefore, further away from the goal.

Dimarco was also more aggressive this week, constantly attacking the passes to Yamal and getting into duels early after he receives the ball to prevent him from orienting himself and forcing him into quick decisions.

Yamal still showed why he is the biggest talent in world football right now, but even when he showed his individual brilliance and got past the first pressing attempt and into the final third, Inter had answers.

Mkhitaryan, who played as the left central midfielder, always moved to the wing or the half-space to double Yamal and prevent him from cutting inside and getting on his strong left foot.

While Yamal had his moments later on in the game, Inter Milan managed to nearly shut him down in the first 45 minutes of the game.

Another factor for that wa