Barcelona Rely on Domestic Success to Face Struggling Inter
Barcelona brings their local success to the European stage as they face struggling Italian side Inter Milan on Wednesday evening in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal.
The Catalan team aims to leverage their home-field advantage and the support of their fans to continue their journey in the competition, which they won for the fifth time 10 years ago. Barcelona is also pursuing a quadruple this season, sitting atop La Liga, four points ahead of Real Madrid with five games remaining.
However, Barcelona is aware that their task will not be easy against Inter, especially with the absence of Polish striker Robert Lewandowski due to injury. Nevertheless, Barcelona boasts deadly attacking options, led by wingers Lamine Yamal and Brazilian Raphinha.
On the other hand, Inter enters the match on the back of disappointing results. Once tipped to achieve a treble and replicate their 2010 success, they have lost their last three matches in all competitions without scoring a single goal. Despite reaching the Champions League semifinals by eliminating Bayern Munich (4-3 on aggregate), manager Simone Inzaghi’s team seems to be suffering from fatigue after a grueling season, which led to them losing the Italian league leadership to Napoli last weekend.
Adding to Inter’s difficulties, Barcelona is riding a wave of euphoria after winning the Copa del Rey, defeating arch-rivals Real Madrid 3-2 after extra time last Saturday. This victory marked Barcelona’s third win over Madrid this season across all competitions.
Here are the key stats to help you predict the correct score and win valuable prizes with Betway:
- Barcelona and Inter have faced each other 16 times in Europe, with the Spanish team winning half of these encounters, losing three times, and drawing five times.
- This will be the second time Barcelona and Inter meet in the knockout stages of the European Cup/Champions League. Their previous encounter in the 2009-2010 semifinal saw defending champions Inter eliminated 3-2 on aggregate (3-1 at the Giuseppe Meazza, 0-1 at the Camp Nou).
- Barcelona have never lost any of their six home matches against Inter in the Champions League (winning 5 and drawing 1).
- Barcelona have also remained unbeaten in their six home matches in this season’s Champions League (5 wins, 1 draw), scoring 21 goals across those matches.
- Before his 25th match, Raphinha had directly contributed to 26 goals in the Champions League (15 goals and 11 assists in 24 matches). Only two players in the competition’s history have contributed to more goals in their first 25 matches—Norwegian Erling Haaland (36) and Uruguayan Luis Suárez (28).
- Lautaro Martínez has scored in his last five Champions League matches for Inter. If he scores against Barcelona, he will become the second South American player to score in six consecutive matches in the competition, after Uruguayan Edinson Cavani.
- Barcelona wingers Lamine Yamal and Raphinha have combined for more goals than any other duo in the Champions League this season (5 goals). They have also created more chances for each other than any other pair in their team (16—eight each).
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