Two seasons after coming within 90 minutes of the UEFA Champions League, Internazionale is back in the semifinals with a realistic chance of winning its fourth Champions League title. The first leg against Barcelona couldn’t have gone off to a better start; Marcus Thuram, who made his return after missing several matches with an injury, flicked it into the back of the net less than a minute into the game, and Denzel Dumfries made it two off a set piece in the 21st minute.
From there, it might have looked like Inter had the match under control with a 2-0 lead, having conceded just five throughout the entire competition to this point. But never to be counted out, the Blaugrana’s wunderkind Lamine Yamal found the back of the net with a glancing blow off the left post and Ferrán Torres tapped one in off Raphinha’s assist in the 38th minute to level the scoreline headed into halftime.
The Nerrazzuri’s fortunes got worse shortly before halftime, when lead striker Lautaro Martínez was slow to get up after a challenge with what Fabrizio Romano called a muscular issue. Although he stayed in the match, Simone Inzaghi made the decision to pull him at halftime, replacing him with Mehdi Taremi. Perhaps it’s more a matter of caution for Martínez — after all, the clubs still have a second leg to play next Tuesday, and Inter is three points off of Napoli’s Serie A lead — but given the match’s high stakes, his injury must be a fairly major concern in order to be pulled in such a critical moment.
This season, the 27-year-old Argentine has scored 12 goals in Serie A and eight more in the Champions League, ranking in the 80th percentile among strikers in Europe’s top five leagues just a year after finishing a career-best seventh in Ballon d’Or voting. Meanwhile, the Porto legend Taremi has netted just once each in Serie A and the Champions League in his first season with Inter.
It’s unclear how serious Martínez’s injury is, but with just six games until the second leg of the semifinal, the Nerrazzuri are undoubtedly hoping he heals quickly. If Inter were to advance without its number nine, the Champions League final will be played May 31.
