Lukaku made his first appearance in two months after suffering a thigh injury during Inter’s thrashing victory at the San Siro, demoting Barca to the Europa League ahead of their match against Bayern Munich later on Wednesday.
Romelu Lukaku scored during Inter Milan’s 4-0 thrashing of Viktoria Plzen on his return to the team on Wednesday, helping his team advance to the Round of 16 of the Champions League and eliminating Barcelona from the competition.
After Henrikh Mkhitaryan and an Edin Dzeko brace effectively guaranteed his team of at least second place in Group C, Inter’s fourth goal came three minutes later and only four minutes after Lukaku replaced Lautaro Martinez.
Lukaku made his first appearance in two months after suffering a thigh injury during Inter’s thrashing victory at the San Siro, demoting Barca to the Europa League ahead of their match against Bayern Munich later on Wednesday.
Due to their superior head-to-head record and six point advantage over Barcelona, Simone Inzaghi’s team cannot be passed by the Catalans even if they defeat group leaders Bayern.
After Inter won by a solitary goal the week before, Barca’s fate was all but decided when Inter drew an exciting game at the Camp Nou 3-3 a fortnight ago.
When the group stage draw was made, Xavi Hernandez’s Barcelona were the favourites to advance alongside Bayern, but they have only won one of their four games and accrued just four points.
Being eliminated so early causes Barca embarrassment after a summer of extravagant spending and puts additional strain on their already troubled finances.
Before president Joan Laporta and the board used their infamous “palancas,” or financial leverage, Barca had a debt of 1.3 billion euros ($1.28 billion).
While this is happening, Inter’s advancement into the knockout rounds of Europe’s top club competition continues a sharp improvement in form for a team that appeared to be in serious trouble at the beginning of the month.
Fans of Inter hope for another Serie A title challenge after the team’s five victories in their last six games across all competitions made Inter is one of the three likely Italian teams in the November round of bracket draws.
Inter attacked right away, and when Jindrich Stanek made a shrewd double save in the 25th minute, they should have taken the lead.
Stanek stopped a close-range header from Mkhitaryan after Federico Dimarco missed an opportunity to roll in Denzel Dumfries for a straightforward tap-in.
Mkhitaryan would not be stopped, though, and ten minutes later he gave Inter the lead by heading in Alessandro Bastoni’s deep cross while Dzeko was occupying the Plzen defenders.
Three minutes before halftime, Dzeko gave the home team a decisive lead after Dimarco brilliantly intercepted Nicolo Barella’s arrowed crossfield pass and rolled a pass across the goal that the Bosnian could not miss.
Since Inter was not content to rest on their laurels, Dzeko scored his sixth goal of the season in the 66th minute to seal qualification after Stanek successfully blocked Lautaro Martinez’s low attempt.
That left time for the return of fan favourite Lukaku, and just as the cheers for his comeback were beginning to die down, he capped the evening off perfectly with a deft near-post finish after passing to Joaquin Correa.
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