MILAN (AP) — Strange things happen when Inter Milan plays Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals.
The last time the two teams met in the final four of Europe’s elite club competition, in 2010, Barcelona had to make a 15-hour journey by bus to Milan after an ash cloud caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull shut down airspace.
Barcelona lost that first leg 3-1 and a stout defensive performance by Inter in the return match saw it advance to the final 3-2 on aggregate — where it beat Bayern Munich to clinch a historic treble under Jose Mourinho.
Inter fortunately didn’t have to make a similarly arduous journey despite an unprecedented blackout bringing much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill Monday.
Power had almost fully returned to Spain early Tuesday morning and Inter’s charter flight took off as scheduled for Barcelona at around 5 p.m. local time ahead of the first leg of their semifinal on Wednesday.
Barcelona’s 17-year-old star Lamine Yamal said he was caught at the team’s training grounds on the outskirts of the city when power went out just after noon on Monday.
“The truth is that we didn’t know what to do. I was with my teammates all day at the training center,” Yamal said on Tuesday. “The blackout made us all very nervous. But of course now we are only thinking about the semifinal that we are very motivated to play.”
Recharging Inter
Inter coach Simone Inzaghi will be hoping his team can power back up for the game as well.
Inter heads to Barcelona following a dire run of results that has seen its dreams of another treble evaporate.
For the first time in more than 13 years, Inter has lost three straight matches without scoring a goal.
Since a 2-2 draw against Bayern in the Champions League quarterfinals, the Nerazzurri have lost 1-0 to both Bologna and Roma in Serie A and 3-0 to AC Milan in the second leg of their Italian Cup semifinal.
That has also seen them been leapfrogged at the top of the Serie A table by Napoli, slipping three points behind the new league leader.
“We must always be ambitious, we have always shown that,” Inzaghi said Tuesday. “We don’t know how the season will end: the league no longer depends on us, in the Champions League we are among the best four teams in Europe.
“These guys have given everything, clearly the last week was not positive but the team is fine, they are hungry, they will go into this semifinal with their heads held high, with a lot of desire and then we will see who will go to the final.”
Those three games, however, had something in common: Marcus Thuram was missing.
Thuram, who has been out with a left thigh issue, has scored 17 goals and provided nine assists across all competitions for Inter this season.
Without the France forward, Lautaro Martinez has appeared fatigued attempting to carry Inter’s attack. And Marko Arnautovic, Thuram’s replacement, has been ineffective.
But Thuram has returned to training, although it remains to be seen whether he is able to start on Wednesday.
“Thuram trained with the team for the first time today, we hadn’t seen him since Bayern,” Inzaghi said. “We did some good work — short — he showed some good signs, but I have to evaluate tomorrow morning and I’ll talk to him again.”
Inter is seeking a second Champions League final in three seasons after it lost to Manchester City in the trophy match in 2023.
___
AP writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona, Spain.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
