Barcelona’s agonizing 1-0 loss to Inter Milan at San Siro on Tuesday night has caused them to fall far behind in their Champions League group.
Barça is now in danger of once again making the Europa League after playing their worst game of the season for 65 minutes, but having chances at the end and also being denied an opportunity to score the equalizer by a bad VAR decision, with 3 matches left in the group stage.
Barça got off to a strong start, controlling possession and forcing Inter to defend deeply and use long balls to try to escape their half. Though they didn’t generate any genuine chances, the Blaugrana were unquestionably the superior team in the opening 15 minutes.
Inter demonstrated their ability to cause trouble on the break by forcing a save from Marc-André ter Stegen with a long-range effort during the first 15 minutes of play from Hakan Calhanoglu. They were the better team on the field for the final 30 minutes of the period as their defense became harder to penetrate as time went on and their gameplan began to pay off.
The Nerazzurri might have been awarded a penalty and scored on the break, but VAR spared Barça with two accurate offside decisions. Calhanoglu received a pass at the edge of the box, had time to pick his shot, and found the bottom corner to give his team the lead just before halftime.
At the half, the home team had a lead and was looking very at ease against a sluggish, lazy Barça attack that would need to significantly step up if it wanted to have any chance in the second half.
pic @inter twitter
The first 20 minutes of the second half were largely more of the same for Barça, who possessed the ball all game but was unable to create any danger because of slow, ineffective passing that lacked creativity. Inter were never in any real danger at the back.
However, the Italians were unable to duplicate their first-half counterattacking skill, making the game difficult to watch as neither team could trouble the other team’s defense. However, Xavi took Ansu Fati and Alejandro Balde off the bench, and the two young players improved the team with their enthusiasm and abilities.
Barça started to play faster and more aggressively, and they even scored an equalizer through Pedri, but VAR disallowed it for an unintentional handball by Ansu Fati. The Blaugrana sent cross after cross into the box in the final 15 minutes as they sought an equalizer. They had one excellent opportunity when Sergio Busquets was left alone in the six-yard box after receiving a cross from Ousmane Dembélé, but the captain managed to head the ball over the crossbar.
As time was running out and it appeared that Barça would not have another opportunity, Denzel Dumfries clearly committed a penalty by handballing inside the box. Due to a truly absurd refereeing decision, Barça were denied a fantastic opportunity to tie the score because VAR somehow decided it wasn’t a penalty.
After almost ten minutes of added time, the clock finally ran out, and the final horn sounded to put an extremely bad night for Barça at San Siro to an end. They are in a tough group and will battle for their Champions League lives against Inter the following week, but they ought to have at least had the opportunity to earn a point from the spot. The performance by Barça was appalling. In addition, a truly appalling refereeing choice robbed them. Both statements are possible.
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