Barcelona vs. Inter Milan – Instant Classic

Hooligan Soccer

·30 de abril de 2025

Barcelona vs. Inter Milan – Instant Classic

This was the purest expression of world-class football, distilled perfectly over 90 minutes, poured over ice and savored. Absolutely delicious.

First Half

Quite simply: there are no words to properly describe what we witnessed.

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The quickest CL goal scored. Ever. A back-heel from Marcus Thuram at 30 seconds off a Denzel Dumfries pass.
A bicycle kick goal in the 21st from the Flying Dutchman, Dumfries. Assisted from a Francesco Acerbi header pass.
Three minutes later, 17-year old Lamine Yamal dribbled past four Inter defenders before casually slotting the shot off the post. Ridiculous. Jan Sommer was quite literally rooted to the ground and could only watch it go in.
A fourth goal was then scored by Ferran Torres off a Raphinha header pass in the 38th. It was a score that normally would be a top highlight from a half. In this game? It was just another goal.

Second Half

Let’s be clear, if nothing happened in the second half it would still be one of the best games of the year and a stone-cold classic.

But that, mercifully, did not happen.

Dumfries once again showed why Surinamese food fuels some of the world’s best (check his post-match interview with CBS for context). He leapt up to meet a Hakan Çalhanoglu cross, his header ricocheting off his own shoulder, then looping above Wojciech Szczesny into the net.

Barcelona’s answer came around ninety seconds later, also off a corner kick. Yamal froze the defense with a dummy and allowed Raphinha to blast it off the crossbar and onto the back of a diving Jan Sommer. Cruelly, it was credited as an own goal. Raphinha won’t care.

Other highlights:

Thuram vs. Pau Cubarsí. These two were like classic heavyweight boxers of old dancing and sparring over 15 rounds.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored, but was deemed offsides by a shoe size. Literal inch.
Lamine Yamal struck the crossbar with a blooping cross/shot. He was less of a threat as Inter put three defenders onto him.
Raphinha hit another laser in the 91st that was well-saved by Sommer.

If there’s any sour note, it’s that Inter Milan get no advantage from this remarkable showing of putting in three away goals. It seems absurd that if the next week’s fixture was to end nil-nil that they will play extra time. But then again, another 30 minutes between these two would be a reward unto itself.