Tonight is by far and away not only the biggest game of our season so far, but the biggest game of the last 6 years. From the San Siro at 9pm local time, it’s crunch time. It’s Inter Milan against Barça in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League Semi Final stage.
This is probably the most important game I’ve ever had to write a match preview for and the nerves are kicking in now even at the time of writing. It’s just such a big game, I can’t understate that. So lets just jump straight into the preview.
A Quick Look at our opponents:
There’s no need to go over the minor details of what this Inter side is about, we’ve faced them already just a week ago and even before we were aware of what kind of team this is. They’ve got some incredible players in each position of the pitch.
We saw that only last week in the first leg, which for a neutral, was one of the best games of the season. But i feel like it was more of a health scare for us Barça fans. I can only expect a similar game later tonight, with both teams expected to set up in much a similar way to the first game between the two.
The San Siro is an incredibly difficult place to go, historic and the stadium is going to be absolutely bouncing. It’s going to be loud and hostile and possibly one of the most difficult places we’ve been too this season. But we have been to some tough stadiums throughout the season, especially in the champions league. Estadio de luz, signal iduna park. The Bernabeu in LA LIGA, we have experienced hostile atmospheres before and that’s the thing we have to lean on for tonight’s game.
It’s not going to be easy, its going to be a long and stressful game. But these are the moments we’ve been waiting for through all these years, we have to embrace it. Let’s have a look at the possible lineup.
Predicted lineup:
Heading into the game, all of us were excited by the possibility of Balde returning from injury just in time for the second leg. But unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to recover and Flick has decided not to risk him for tonight’s huge game, with the hope in getting him back for El Clasico instead.
It’s a huge blow, it really is. And it makes our left side a lot weaker and more vulnerable than it would’ve done if we could rely on Balde. We’re missing him a lot right now in this team. However, miraculously Lewandowski has recovered in time to be in the squad list for tonight’s game with the intention of playing a part in the 2nd half.
As for the rest of the team, i think Flick will keep it fairly similar to the one started last week. The only real question is what will we do in defence. Will Martin start again, will Iñigo shift out there, or will we see something completely different. We will have to wait and see on that one.
I’d personally go with Gavi instead of Frenkie especially away at the San Siro, but I fully expect De Jong to start this one. The attack will also remain the same, with Ferran starting at striker.
My starting lineup:
Tek
Eric- Araujo- Cubarsi- Iñigo
Pedri- Frenkie
Yamal- Olmo- Raphinha
Ferran
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