PSG and Inter will play for the crown at the end of the month but there were plenty of twists and turns before the finalists were decided
Inter
Continue reading...Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 Arsenal (agg: 3-1): Champions League semi-final, second leg – as it happened
Gianluigi Donnarumma made two awesome saves as PSG withstood an early onslaught to beat Arsenal in a pulsating game
A relaxed Mikel Arteta talks to TNT Sports
It’s our biggest night for a long time. But this isn’t where we want to be – we want to make the final. We are very close. We learned a few things from the first game, about the level of the two teams and the small margins. We have a big conviction that we’re gonna do it tonight.
This is where this club deserves to be. We still have so much to do – so much to win, so much consistency to show – but hopefully we are on the right trajectory.
Continue reading...Ruben Amorim wary of propensity for Manchester United to ‘lose our minds’
- Manchester United lead 3-0 in Europa League semi-final
- ‘Sometimes … something happens and we lose our mind’
Ruben Amorim admits Manchester United “can lose their minds” during games so is unsure how they will perform in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg against Athletic Bilbao, despite holding a 3-0 lead.
United are favourites to reach this month’s final at the San Mamés after their victory there last week thanks to Casemiro’s header and two goals from Bruno Fernandes. In the previous round’s return leg at Old Trafford they allowed a 2-0 advantage over Lyon to become a 4-2 deficit before scoring three goals in the final seven minutes of extra time to secure passage to the last four. United also led Lyon 2-1 in the first leg but conceded a 95th-minute Rayan Cherki equaliser.
Continue reading...Fearless Lamine Yamal leaves his mark to give Barcelona hope for the future
Teenager was a revelation across an incredible semi-final tie and Spanish side have much to be proud of in defeat
On the afternoon before the most extraordinary Champions League semi-final anyone could remember, Lamine Yamal said he had left fear behind in the park in Mataró years ago. Everything else he left behind at Montjuïc and San Siro, a statement stronger than any he had delivered in the press room. If that line was a promise, a demonstration of personality, it was kept, but Barcelona couldn’t reach their first final in a decade so he made another. “We won’t stop until this club is where it deserves to be: at the summit,” he wrote in the dark moments after defeat.
Here Barcelona had been stopped within touching distance. Lamine Yamal departed the pitch in silence holding Marcus Thuram’s shirt, Inter’s players coming to embrace this boy they had survived, a child born every 50 years in the words of their manager, Simone Inzaghi. There has been something revelatory about the 17-year-old’s performance over two astonishing nights and at the end of it all there was almost a kind of reverence, a respect towards him. Inter had reached the final again and will talk of this forever, their everything; one day, they knew, he may be part of the epic stories they tell.
Continue reading...Acerbi’s preposterous goal summed up ‘crazy Inter’s’ last-chance warriors
The oldest man on the oldest Champions League team delivered when it mattered to show they can go all the way
What was he even doing there, in the 182nd minute of a two-legged tie, a 37-year-old centre-back attacking the opposition’s six-yard box, the furthest man forward on his team? Francesco Acerbi had not scored a goal in more than a year. Heck, he had not scored one in 65 appearances across Uefa club competitions. This is not his job, not the thing he trains for, not a defining moment anyone had predicted for the most entertaining Champions League semi-final ever to unfold.
Or maybe this is the only way it could be. “Pazza Inter Amala” runs the line from Inter’s club anthem. “Crazy Inter, Love Her”. This is not Real Madrid, where “being successful is part of our DNA”, nor Juventus lecturing you that “winning is the only thing that counts”. Inter make sense when they stop making sense. Acerbi – yes, that Acerbi, who overcame cancer twice and who has won all seven major trophies of his career since turning 30, smashing a striker’s finish into the top corner to make it 6-6 on aggregate and force extra time? Of course. How else did you imagine this could go?
Continue reading...Norwegian fan trades five kilos of fish for ticket to Bodø/Glimt v Tottenham
- Supporter with spare ticket took the bait over offer
- Around 50,000 supporters vying for just 480 seats
A Norwegian bartered five kilos of semi-dried fish for a ticket to Thursday’s semi-final clash between Bodø/Glimt and Tottenham in the Arctic Circle, as the hosts aim to become the first Norwegian club to reach a European final.
Some 50,000 fans were vying for just 480 remaining tickets to the second leg of Bodø/Glimt’s Europa League semi-final.
Continue reading...Trajectory, vibe, a sense of progress: why Arsenal can’t afford a Paris mismatch | Barney Ronay
There is a fair chance Mikel Arteta’s team won’t beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. If they must lose, lose right
Is this thing … still on? After last week’s strangely enervated first-leg performance against Paris Saint-Germain at the Emirates Stadium it has been tempting to get a bit ahead of things, to see Arsenal’s season as already a zombie entity, still out there walking around the place, limbs twitching, skinny hands rattling the perimeter fence, not exactly dead, but not too far from undead.
On Monday night, even, Paris police declared Wednesday’s return leg at the Parc des Princes an event “of no particular concern”, as in no great flashpoints, no obvious tension. Just don’t tell Mikel Arteta that. And not just because rumours of the death of Arsenal’s season are widely exaggerated. There is even a nightmare scenario available to the club’s supporters, a product of the deep banter-verse, where Arsenal don’t make the Champions League next season but Tottenham do. All they need to do is keep losing while others win, and while slack, stitched-together Spurs bundle through Bodø/Glimt and a beta Manchester United, thereby banking their £100m jackpot while finishing 16th in the league.
Continue reading...Inter 4-3 Barcelona (aet, 7-6 on agg): Champions League semi-final – as it happened
After both legs produced 3-3 draws, Davide Frattesi struck in extra time to send Inter to the final
20 secs: Inter started quickly in Barcelona; Barca nearly return the favour here. Torres is found in space in the Inter box down the right, but the flag pops up for offside before he can roll a pass across for Raphinha to tap home.
Inter get the ball rolling. Another 3-3 draw, please! We’ll have extra time and possibly penalties if so.
Continue reading...Barcelona boosted by Lewandowski return for semi-final clash with Inter
- Polish striker back from hamstring injury for second leg
- Inter have fitness doubts for Champions League tie
The Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has been declared fit to return from a hamstring injury but is set to start on the bench in their Champions League semi-final second leg at Inter on Tuesday, the Barça manager, Hansi Flick, confirmed.
The 36-year-old Polish international, who has scored 40 goals for Barcelona in all competitions this season, had been sidelined for his club’s last four games. After sustaining the injury during Barça’s 4-3 victory against Celta Vigo on 19 April, he missed the Copa del Rey final victory against Real Madrid and the first leg of the semi against Inter.
Continue reading...Tottenham 3-1 Bodø/Glimt: Europa League semi-final, first leg – as it happened
Spurs produced a (fairly) authoritative performance to earn a two-goal first-leg advantage against Bodø/Glimt
“If any Spurs fans are thinking of heading to north Norway to sample the atmosphere for the second leg (I assume tickets are long gone), I can confirm that the (12-hour) train journey north from Bergen is absolutely stunning, the highlight of an interrail trip to the arctic circle last year,” writes Stuart Jenkinson, as the referee orchestrates the pre-match coin toss. “Every other house/ apartment was sporting a Bodo/glimt flag, as was the local peak, but unfortunately no home games in the short time we were there.”
The players have joined them, and they’re on their way out! One end of the ground is displaying the Spurs club motto by means of holding up black and white plastic sheeting. Flags wave everywhere. One corner is very, very yellow.
Continue reading...Athletic Bilbao 0-3 Manchester United: Europa League semi-final, first leg – as it happened
Manchester United have one foot in the final after a commanding display against 10-man Bilbao
3 min: … but nothing comes of it, Ruiz De Galarreta attempting a shot from distance that bounces apologetically through to Onana.
2 min: Bilbao on the front foot quickly. Nico Williams makes good down the left and looks for his brother Inaki at the far stick. Dorgu is forced to turn it behind for the first corner of the game.
Continue reading...Champions League review: a goalkeeping masterclass and an all-time classic in Barcelona
We’re down to the last four teams, and the semi-finals didn’t disappoint, even if they were played in contrasting styles
Paris Saint-Germain
Continue reading...Iñaki Williams: ‘It’s belonging. For the people and for us, Athletic is a religion’
The Ghana international on how recent successes and his club’s feeling and culture fuel hope for their semi-final with Manchester United
Iñaki Williams, the fastest footballer in town, is accelerating again. The more the images come, the quicker he goes, flying through faces, flashbacks and feelings, everything they did and can still do. “It’s madness,” he says, eyes sparkling, the words chasing each other out, emotion building. And then the Athletic Bilbao winger pauses and laughs. “The other day they came to do tests. The cardiologist started to talk about it. He says: ‘That was wonderful; wow, the gabarra …’ And just him mentioning it, on the screen you saw my heart beating faster.”
The gabarra is a barge. Only that’s not all: there is something almost mythical about it, like a legend passed through generations. In an expression of Athletic’s identity, another idiosyncrasy of a unique club, the club’s trophies are celebrated by pulling the gabarra up the Nervión river with the players on board, or so they had been endlessly told, black and white pictures adorning the walls of seemingly every bar. Then, last April, they finally saw it for themselves, Williams leading them on board holding the Copa del Rey. It was the first time in 40 years. More than a million fans lined the river to see it: there were more people with them in Bilbao than live there.
Continue reading...Barcelona 3-3 Inter: Champions League semi-final, first leg – as it happened
Lamine Yamal was the star of this six-goal thriller, an instant classic, though Denzel Dumfries and Marcus Thuram weren’t too far behind
Inter get the ball rolling. They’re playing in white this evening. And they’re immediately on the attack …
Here come the teams … and Lamine Yamal, who felt a twinge upon slipping while taking a shot in the warm-up, is still in the Barcelona line-up. He doesn’t look particularly concerned as the Champions League anthem is blasted out, nor when he slaps hands with the Inter players. No Ronaldo-at-the-Stade-de-France-style drama to see here. We’ll be off in a minute, once everyone pays their respects to Pope Francis.
Continue reading...James Maddison hungry to repay loyal Spurs fans with Europa League glory
- Tottenham face Bodø/Glimt in semi-final first leg
- ‘It hurts me a lot that we’re having a poor season’
James Maddison wants to reward Tottenham’s long-suffering supporters by winning the club’s first trophy since 2008 and has said a dismal Premier League campaign has made the players more determined to succeed in the Europa League.
Spurs host the Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt in the first leg of the semi-final on Thursday after suffering a record-equalling 19th league defeat at Liverpool on Sunday. Although Spurs have reached this stage of the Europa League for the first time since they won its predecessor, the Uefa Cup, in 1984, they have beaten only Southampton in the Premier League since the end of February and are on course for their lowest finish since its formation in 1992.
Continue reading...