by jeff
Barcelona Stunned at the San Siro
4:10 pm in Champions League by jeff
In the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho had to be concerned with the form of Barcelona in recent weeks. Mourinho and Inter knew they would have to play their best soccer to get a good result against arguably one of the best teams in recent history. Inter decided to play its best match of the season at the right time defeating the defending champions 3-1.
Inter though would start flat allowing Barcelona to take the early 1-0 lead in the 19th minute off a goal from Pedro. Pedro found himself on the end of a great ball from Maxwell streaking up the left side to give the visitors the early lead. Barcelona looked as if they would take care of business as usual, but things would change shortly.
Inter would soon take over the match in the midfield and tie the match in the 30th minute when Wesley Sneijder hit the back of the net. Sneijder was left wide open on the back post and slotted the ball past a helpless Valdes.
The hosts would take the lead for good short after the break in the 48th minute when Maicon slithered through the Barcelona defense to score the go ahead goal. As a right back Maicon is an excellent goal scorer that has to be treated like a striker.
There was a bit of controversy in the 61st minute when Sneijder once again found himself open on the back post and headed the ball back across the goal to Milito who flicked a header into the back of the net. The Barcelona players were very upset with the assistant referee as it looked as Milito was in an offside position. Assistant referees are under an extreme amount of pressure to make the right calls and it was too close to call.
The defending champions need a huge performance next week if they want to repeat. If any team can come back from a two goal deficit it’s Barcelona. Lionel Messi will have to have more of an impact next week. Inter bottled him up and didn’t allow him any space to create chances. Our man of the match is Wesley Sneijder who was a constant threat out of the midfield for Inter.
