BARCELONA: Hansi Flick’s brilliant young Barcelona side won hearts in this season’s Champions League and re-established themselves at Europe’s top table, but fell agonisingly short of reaching the Munich final after one of the competition’s greatest semi-finals.
Dusting themselves down from their painful elimination at the hands of Inter Milan on Tuesday, Barca will take pride in knowing the club are closer than ever to ending their decade-long drought in the continent’s premier competition.
Barcelona lost 4-3 in extra-time in Milan, with the Italians progressing 7-6 on aggregate after a thrilling rollercoaster of a match in which they threw away a 2-0 lead. For the first time since 2019 the Catalans made the final four, but they were dreaming of more -- a first Champions League trophy since 2015 and a potential quadruple.
“The players deserve respect, but we are playing to win trophies,” said Flick, not content with merely restoring Barcelona’s status among the elite. With the wizardry of Lamine Yamal, the goals of Raphinha and brains of Pedri, pulling strings in midfield, Barcelona have enough to end their wait for the trophy in the post-Lionel Messi era.
An inspired Yann Sommer, a shaky Barca defence missing injured regulars Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, and Inter’s experience ensured they did not. “Of course (something special) has started, but we’re not at the end -- we had a really huge defeat now,” said Flick.
“We’re not satisfied about that but it’s normal. We have to stand up, this is the message I want to give. “We have to fight until the end of the season -- and for next season.” Barcelona were two minutes away from booking their flights to Munich, leading 3-2 on the night at the San Siro in the pouring rain, but Francesco Acerbi’s 93rd minute strike forced extra-time before Davide Frattesi won it for the hosts.
Arguably the best player in both legs of the tie was 17-year-old Spain star Yamal, but he showed his inexperience in stoppage time before Acerbi struck. Rampaging down the right, yet again, Yamal crashed a shot against the post when he might have headed for the corner flag.
In the first-half 18-year-old Pau Cubarsi, another graduate of Barcelona’s La Masia academy, conceded a penalty with a risky challenge on Lautaro Martinez. “We have a young team and we will improve of course,” Flick told reporters.