2023-04-19 23:15:48
Inter sealed the pass to semifinals of the Champions League after drawing 3-3 with Benfica, making good the 2-0 victory achieved in Lisbon, and the ticket to the final against their great rival, Milan, will be played.
After the result of the first leg, everything seemed decided when Nicolo Barella opened the scoring in the 14th minute, taking advantage of the first clear goal chance of the match.
He Benfica did not give up and carried the weight of the game, even equalizing with a header from Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes before the break (37), but the Portuguese never seemed to believe in a comeback, even less when Lautaro Martínez finished off a cross from Federico Dimarco on goal. (66) to definitively ‘kill’ the tie.
Another Argentine, Joaquín Correa, put the finishing touch to the interista party at the Giuseppe Meazza, with a great goal as soon as he jumped onto the pitch (78), although Benfica did not lower their arms and saved the honor by forcing the final tie, with late goals from Antonio Silva (86) and Croatian Petar Musa (90+5).
This pass to the semifinals will give some oxygen to an Inter that is sinking in Serie A, where they have lost five of their last seven games played, with only four points added out of 21 possible, and with 8 days to go until the end of the championship, they are out of the qualifying positions for the next Champions League.
And it could also be the last hope of salvation for his coach, Simone Inzaghi, who is highly questioned about the poor results of the season… at least until he faces Milan in three weeks, who got through to the semifinals on Tuesday with the 1-1 draw achieved in Naples.
Italy ensures in this way to return to a Champions League final, something that has not happened since Juventus lost 4-1 against Real Madrid (2017), but it will not be the first time that the two residents of the Lombard capital cross paths in the top continental club competition.
They already met in the semifinals of the 2002-2003 season and Milan won for the highest value of goals in the opposite field (0-0; 1-1), and the ‘Rossonero’ team won the sixth of their seven ‘Orejonas’ ‘ in the final against another Italian team, Juventus, on penalties.
They met again three seasons later (2004-2005), this time in the quarterfinals, although the result was the same: qualification for Milan, who won both games (2-0 and 3-0), although on that occasion the Barcelona got off the milanistas in the final.
Benfica, for its part, confirms that a season that was perfect until two weeks ago is getting long, when it seemed to have the Portuguese league in its pocket, having a 10-point advantage over Porto, and that in Europe it had dazzled in the first phase, being first in a group with Paris SG and Juventus, and overwhelming Bruges in the round of 16 (7-1 on aggregate).
But in just fifteen days they have squandered everything after adding two consecutive defeats in the Portuguese championship, seeing their advantage over Porto reduced to only four points, and now being left out of Europe.
The team led by Roger Schmidt is also left without the possibility of avenging the team that lost the 1989-1990 European final against Arrigo Sachi’s Milan 1-0 with a solitary goal from the Dutchman Frank Rijkaard.
That was the last appearance of Benfica among the four best teams on the continent. More than 30 years for the double European champion (1961 and 1962) and another elimination to increase the curse of Béla Guttmann, that Hungarian coach who, after creating the team that won the two ‘Orejonas’, left the club because he did not feel valued by the Lisbon directive, but not before declaring: «I curse you. Benfica will not win the European Cup again in 100 years.”
There is less left for the spell to end.
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