The stewards rushed down the stairs. They dashed across and pulled the man down. He was on the second tier railings at San Siro. He’d swung his legs over and could have fallen. It was the 120th minute and the Inter fan had seen and been through everything.
But the despair he must have felt in the final seconds of normal time — when his team, 2-0 up at half-time, were 3-2 down — had turned to joy. The stewards didn’t need to talk him down from the brink. He was on cloud nine, arms outstretched, singing along with the anthem booming out from the sound system: SAI, CHE SOLA NON TI LASCIO MAI. “I’ll never leave you on your own, you know.” Not against Barcelona. Not in Munich later this month, where Inter will play their second Champions League final in three seasons.
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The fan in question did nothing Davide Frattesi didn’t do in minute 99. Inter’s substitute scaled the yellow gate under the Curva Nord and roared with the rest of the stadium. He did it last season when he scored a stoppage-time winner against Hellas Verona, a goal that held emotional significance in Inter’s 20th league title. But this goal, the winner in a 4-3 for the ages, was bigger. Joining him, studs and fingers clinging on for dear life, was his skipper, Lautaro Martínez.
The Argentine had already gone off after 70 minutes. He wasn’t expected to play after picking up an injury in Catalonia last week in a 3-3 draw so rich in drama and entertainment no one thought it could be bettered. “My leg felt different and I spent two days in tears,” Lautaro told Sky Italia. “I tried to be back even if I wasn’t 100%. I live for the game, that’s how I am.”
Lautaro Martinez hobbled through 70 minutes – but still scored vs Barcelona (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
That’s how we are after a semi-final that set a new benchmark for how all semi-finals should be played. “Thirteen goals in two games,” Denzel Dumfries blew out his cheeks. A team dead and buried. A hand then stretching out through the earth and beyond the grave. A comeback after a comeback.
“I’m speechless after what happened tonight,” Federico Dimarco said on the same broadcast. The son of a greengrocer from Milan’s Porta Romana neighbourhood, he’s an Inter fan who used to go in the Curva with the ultras. Dimarco had gone off earlier than Lautaro, exhausted from having to mark Lamine Yamal. Barcelona’s comeback had already started, their second remontada in a week on the way.
Eric García volleyed one back and Dimarco could only look on, helpless, as Barcelona scored three unanswered goals.
Inter are known as pazza — crazy. The club’s vice-president Javier Zanetti once released a song called Amala Pazza Inter Amala with his old teammates. Love her. Crazy Inter. Love her. It disappeared from the playlist at San Siro when Antonio Conte took charge and didn’t return when he was replaced by Simone Inzaghi. They wanted a sane, less hysterical Inter. But the crazy is deep in this club. It can’t be straitjacketed or sedated. In the end, it gets out — and on nights like Tuesday, after everything, the fans are mad for it.
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The institutional memory at Inter tells us things aren’t supposed to come easy. When they went through the entire league phase, drawing away to Man City, beating Arsenal, and only conceding once, it was — at least until Inzaghi’s arrival in 2021 — almost un-Inter-like. It spoke to their maturity on this stage, an awareness they have nothing to fear from anyone.
Not away to Barcelona, where they were 2-0 up then 3-2 up and thought they’d won 4-3, only for semi-automated offside to rule out Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s goal. Not tonight either, when they were again two to the good and outplayed Barcelona for a half.
No one at San Siro, however, was on their phone booking flights and accommodation for Munich. They know what happened last week. They know Inter.
Inzaghi celebrates an incredible victory with his players (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
In the week before the first leg at Montjuïc, Inter were on for a treble like in 2010. They then lost to Bologna and Roma in the league, relinquished top spot, and were eliminated from the Coppa Italia by Milan.
When Raphinha appeared to complete Barcelona’s turnaround on Tuesday in the 87th minute and the substitutes from Hansi Flick’s bench ran onto the pitch, the Inter fans contemplated finishing the season empty-handed. They looked around at each other without looking at anything. Blank stares everywhere.
The fans were bereft, but for a familiar sense of déjà vu. Inter, it should be said, have a tendency under Inzaghi to throw away apparently unassailable leads. It happened in his first season when Olivier Giroud turned and scored in the derby as their cousins Milan came back and went on to win the league.
It happened this season in the league to Parma and, once again, to Milan in the final of the Super Cup in Riyadh, when a 2-0 lead vanished in the second half.
Defending a title and reaching the semi-finals of domestic and continental competitions has undoubtedly taken a lot out of Inter. But not everything.
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A ball hit more in hope than expectation in the 93rd minute found its way to Denzel Dumfries.
Dumfries. Always Dumfries.
The wing-back was involved in all of Inter’s goals in Catalonia. He assisted Lautaro’s opener at San Siro and presumably looked for him again in stoppage time of the second leg. Only Lautaro was already off, and there were no centre-forwards in the Barcelona box — only centre-backs.
One, however, just so happened to be Dumfries’ teammate, Francesco Acerbi, who, on his weaker foot, sent the game to extra-time. The oldest team in the Champions League suddenly looked rejuvenated. Inter’s limits this season began to look like new frontiers.
At times the team has been criticised for a lack of depth, certainly when compared with their last appearance in the Champions League final. Romelu Lukaku backed up Edin Džeko on that occasion (and missed the chance to equalise against City when he came on). Mehdi Taremi, the Iranian free-agent from Porto, has largely disappointed in his first campaign at Inter. When Inzaghi brought him on, it did not inspire confidence.
Federico Dimarco battles with Lamine Yamal (Piero Cruciatti/Getty Images)
Regardless of Taremi, Inzaghi’s subs have often been considered an Achilles heel of his management. But not against Barça.
After some strong hold-up play from Marcus Thuram, two of the manager’s changes combined to win the game for Inter. Taremi teed up Frattesi, who got the winner — just as he did away in Munich last month when Inter beat Bayern. Now they get to go back.
Inzaghi was overjoyed for Frattesi, revealing the Italy international hadn’t been able to participate in the team’s final training session and was a doubt even to make the bench. “My heart was beating out of my chest,” Frattesi said on CBS. “It’s really incredible. There will never be another match like that, the emotion like that. It’s crazy. My family are all here today and this is something I will tell my kids in the future. When we conceded the third goal I spoke to Marcus and I said we could go to the final.”
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Without goalkeeper Yann Sommer, Inter would not have done so. Barcelona put six past him in both games and yet the Swiss shot-stopper was one of the best players of the tie.
As much as Inter fans were sad to see André Onana go after the final in Istanbul, Sommer has been ever so dependable — with his hands and his feet. Inzaghi sung his praises and those of the rest of his team.
“A lot has been said about Yamal,” Inzaghi told Sky Italia. “Tonight I saw another extraordinary player who impressed me a lot; Frenkie De Jong. He was always there on the second balls, cleaning things up and positioned himself well to help the defence when Barcelona went forward. But clearly I wouldn’t swap my players for anyone.” Not after a night like that. “We needed a super super Inter tonight. The lads deserve a round of applause because in both games they put in a couple of monstrous performances otherwise you don’t make a final. I’m very proud and happy to be their coach. They gave their all.”
As the Inter fans twirled out of San Siro’s towers and headed to Piazza del Duomo to light fireworks, they sang one of their favourite songs. It references all the miles they cover to watch their team win; miles that now lead to Munich. First, however, the supporters need to get their breath and their voices back. As one of them left the stadium, a remark he made to a friend epitomised the night. “Has anyone got any oxygen?”
Top photo: Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images
