MILAN — The day after one of the best matches in the history of the game, there is still a sort bewilderment around not only fans who were at San Siro on Tuesday night, but also anybody who watched the game on TV around the world. The second leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals between Inter and Barcelona showed the essence of this sport, the reason why we all love it. When Francesco Acerbi scored to make it 3-3, and keep Inter alive, one minute before the final whistle, some of the Inter home fans had already left the stadium, assuming the game was basically over. It, most emphatically, was not. When they heard the Italian defender scored his first ever European goal at 37 years old, they tried to get back to their seats. They were not allowed.
Top 10 moments from Inter’s epic Champions League win over Barca: Francesco Acerbi’s goal, Lamine Yamal stars
Pardeep Cattry
San Siro was electric on Tuesday night, in one of those defining moments that shape the history of the game. Before the match started, you could easily feel the tension among the home fans, knowing they were going to witness a match that could define the 2024-25 season of their beloved team. It turned out they were going to watch a match that is quickly coming to be seen as one of the best ever, the kind of night that those lucky enough to be at San Siro will remember forever. The greatest match ever played at one of Italy’s most historic stadiums.
San Siro, the home stadium of both Inter and AC Milan, might be heading into the twilight of its life as a mainstay of Italian soccer. There are ongoing talks to build a new stadium that could be shared by the Milan teams in the same area of their current one. Both fanbases are divided, as San Siro was and still is one of the most historic places to attend a soccer match around the world. San Siro was built in 1929 and over the last century it was the stage of the some of the best matches, as both Milan teams were crucial for the development of the sport over the decades. There were some exciting Champions League matches, including ones on the way to AC Milan winning the tournament in 2003 and 2007, or over the 1990’s where players like Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Roberto Baggio, Ronaldo and many others became the icons of world soccer, which saw the Italian Serie A as the most influential league around the world. It’s almost impossible to mention all the most memorable matches that were played in this stadium, but there are a few reasons on why we can already consider the tie between Inter and Barcelona as one of the best ones played in this iconic stadium.
Usually, when we refer to the most exciting matches at least in the modern era of the game, we tend to refer to the biggest comebacks and most unexpected ones. The obvious example of this is Barcelona against PSG in 2017, the “Remontada,” or Liverpool against Barcelona in 2019, AS Roma against Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the 2017-18 edition of the Champions League. More recently, Real Madrid became famous for their comebacks when in 2022 they made three comebacks in a row in the knockout stages against PSG, Chelsea and then Manchester City in their run to the final, which they won against Liverpool in Paris.
Well, Inter’s win against Barcelona was very different, simply because it wasn’t a comeback.
Over the two legs, the 3-3 draw in the first leg and then the 4-3 home win, it was always an open tie. Inter scored twice away before seeing Barcelona making a comeback. Something similar happened in the second leg, but after the two opening goals of Inter, Barcelona scored three before Francesco Acerbi’s late 3-3 goal which heightened everything by pushing the match into extra time. There was never a feeling one of the two teams had the game in their hands, apart of the last minutes of the second half, which made things even better for the people who were watching the match from around the world. Those who were there, who could breath the air of San Siro on such a special night, will never forget the vibrations of the stadium.
In South America, there is a saying about the Boca Juniors home stadium, La Bombonera: “It doesn’t tremble, it beats,” referring to the sensation of the stadium moving during the Boca Juniors games. Well, San Siro was no different on Tuesday. Inter winger Federico Dimarco said something very special about this stadium to Sky Italy right after the Nerazzurri’s victory, speaking with former Inter midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, who was on the pitch the last time Inter won against Barcelona in the Champions League semifinals, when the side then coached by Jose Mourinho won 3-1 against Pep Guardiola’s team: “I hear that other stadiums are chaotic, but nothing compares to San Siro.”