Ansu Fati fires late to break Inter milan’s heart

Inter Milan was knocked out of the Champions League with a 2-1 home loss to an under-strength Barcelona side.

Barcelona having qualified for the next round following their win against Borrusia Dortmund in November, rested their key players. These included likes of Lionel Messi and sergio Busquests among others.

Inter milan on the other hand had no option but to start their best possible team. With the likes of the on form Lautauro Martinez, Romelu Lukaku, and vecino in charge of scoring goals. And with De vrij, Diego Godin and Skrinjar in charge of the three man defense.

It took six minutes to have Inter fans inside the san Siro on their feet with a wonderful strike from lukaku. Which, however, ended up being ruled offside.

Inter kept the pressure on the young catalan team. Lukaku and Martinez opened the defense time and time again with wondeful combination plays. But unfortunately it was Barcelona that scored the first goal. They scored through carles peres who benefitted from a sublime set up from Arturo Vidal to make it one nil.

Inter failed to capitalise despite maintaining pressure

Inter maintained the high pressure and looked the better team for vast majority of the first half. Their persistency would end up paying off with a minute left before extra time at the end of the first half. Romelu Lukaku scored with a thunderbolt of a shot after Lautauro Martinez laid it off to him outside the 18 yard box.

The strike gave Inter fans renewed belief in their team’s chances. Especially with Inter being in the ascendancy. Lukaku would strike again but this time he was ruled off side again. Barcelona grew more threatening as the game went on but Inter remained the aggressors for the most part. Lautaouro Martinez thought he had sealed inters place in the champions league round of 16 twice. However,  on both occasions he was blown offside.

Inter’s night got from bad to horrendous when 17 year old substitute Ansu fati’s piledriver of a shot flew pass Inter’s goalkeeper Handanovic, to put the away team a head with just 5 minutes to go in the game. Inter was unable to respond and eventually lost the game. The goal ensured Inter would be relegated to the Europa league’s round of 32 for the rest of the season. The goal also made Ansu Fati the youngest ever goal scorer in the history of the competition.