After the last whistle of Szymon Marciniak Piurters Inter Milan threw themselves into their arms, and Barcelona players fell on the pitch in disbelief. A moment later, the hosts comforted their rivals, and the producer showed the conversations of Piotr Zieliński with Wojciech Szczęsny and Robert Lewandowski. For Barcelona players, it was an extremely shocking and difficult failure.
Only three minutes before the end of the meeting, it seemed that Barcelona would happily end another emotional rollercoaster this season of the Champions League. After winning 5: 4 with Benfica in January and last week's draw with Inter 3: 3, the players of Hansi Flick were one step away from even greater return.
This is because after the first half of Tuesday's rematch the Catalans lost 0: 2, practically not existing on the pitch. During the break it seemed almost impossible for Barcelona to reverse the fate of the match. And yet she succeeded and just before the end of the match she led 3: 2. Still, he won't play in the Champions League final.
In the added time of the second half, Francesco Acerbi dealt the first blow to guests, in the 99th minute, in extra time, Davide Frattesi killed them. It was enough to look at Szczęsny to see despair in his eyes. This is probably one of the most frustrating and severe failures of a Pole in his career. Szczęsny in Milan He played at least well, but the pitch could leave the bad and helpless, because he could do nothing more at any goal. It hurts all the more because our goalkeeper was one step away from the first in the career of the Champions League.
Inter did not give Szczęsny a chance
After the first half at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza Szczęsny could only sigh helplessly. The team led a clearly better team until the break in Milan, and the Pole could not do much to help his colleagues. Inter He may not create many goal opportunities, but when he had them, he did not leave a shadow of hope.
This was the case in the 21st minute, when Lautaro Martinez scored after Denzel Dumfries. This was also the case before the break, when in the extra time until the first half the penalty was very confidently used by Hakan Calhanoglu. Turk's blow was so precise that even if Szczęsny threw himself in the right direction, he would have little chance of intervention.
In the first half, the Pole was probably the only player of Barcelona, to whom neither Flick nor the fans could blame. But not because Szczęsny defended in other situations perfectly, and because the Catalans simply did not exist on the pitch.
And the Pole did his job. When in the first minutes both of them mocked in subsequent duels, Szczęsny impressed with the strength of peace. In the 13th minute he stopped Marcus Thuram in a situation alone. Although the Frenchman was on a offside at the time, Szczęsny also deserved applause, because the striker of Inter wanted to finish this situation with effective dribbling, and our goalkeeper struck the ball from under his feet.
A moment later, Szczęsny calmly warned Federico Dimarco, going far beyond his own penalty area. Just before Golem Martinez caught the shot of Nicolo Barelli, but in the first half he was also a bit of luck, because he scored Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Calhanoglu, minimally next to the goal.
Extremely severe defeat of Barcelona
What happened in Milan after a break went down in the history of the Champions League. First, we clapped Barcelona in disbelief, who in a few minutes made up for the losses, and in 87. She took the lead 3: 2. At that time, it seemed that the Flicka team would take nothing of the finale, and if the media would mention goalkeepers, then only about Sommer, who still at the 2: 1 state showed the intervention of the season in the Champions League, and later bounced a few more dangerous shots. Ultimately, the Swiss goalkeeper turned out to be a hero.
Because Gol Raphinhi was not the end of the competition. Six minutes later, Francesco Acerbi scored his first goal in the Champions League – at the age of 37. And this was the best summary of the crazy 180 minutes of this competition, and Szczęsny could only break his hands. In a situation where the goal was 3: 3, he could not help again, because Acerbi – after another assassin Dziefries – hit the bar at the bar at a close distance.
Earlier, a Pole did what belonged to him. In the 56th minute Barelli's shot bounced, and just before Golem Raphinhi he again successfully intervened outside the penalty area, warning Thuram. Szczęsny played really decent on Tuesday gameno one can blame him, but our goalkeeper left the pitch frustrated, bad and disappointed.
Because how could it be different, since Barcelona lost to Inter 3: 4, and with the decisive goal the Pole had no chance? If you blame someone for hitting Davide Frattesi, they are only defenders who did not behave passively for the first time, leaving the Italian a lot of space to shot from the penalty area. Szczęsny could only look the ball again after hitting the further corner of the goal.
Despite this, the Pole maintained concentration and Barcelona in the game until the end. In the 109th minute Szczęsny reflected Frattesi's shot from the penalty area. Everything for nothing, because after over 200 minutes of one of the best cup competitions in the history of the Champions League, Barcelona lost to Inter 6: 7.
For Szczęsny it is an extremely painful failure, because until now his return from his retirement promised to be a fairy -tale story. The Pole has already won the Super Cup and the Spanish Cup with Barcelona. Soon it may add the national championship, and the icing on the cake was to be the Champions League, which a decade is waiting in Barcelona.
And they will wait. Also, Szczęsny will wait, who has never won the Champions League, because not everything is lost yet. The dream of the European Cup is another reason why a Pole should extend his contract with Barcelona.