Barcelona vs. Inter Tactical Analysis (First Leg)
Welcome to the Lamine Yamal Show
Barcelona and Inter played out one of the most thrilling matches of the Champions League with so much going on tactically between Hansi Flick and Simon Inzaghi.
There were goals and chances galore in the first half, but Lamine Yamal shined brighter than anyone on the pitch. The seventeen year old had one of the best Champions League performances in recent memory, but in the end it’s all square heading back to the San Siro.
Let’s dive into this crazy match.
First Half
Right out of the gates Inter provides the first blow of the tie only 31 seconds into the match.
It was a good example of how Barcelona can be exploited. Inter simply drew in the press and played it long to let their forwards win 1 v 1 against Barcelona’s back line.
Thuram eventually comes down with the ball, is able to hold it up, play it back to Barella who is able to release Dumfries in behind.
Notice the two most advanced players for Inter on the break: Dimarco and Dumfries. You see this a ton and there is so much importance in Inzaghi’s system for these two get forward as much as possible.
The ball eventually found Thuram in the box and his finish was out of this world:
You could see early on that Inter was staying very compact and Barcelona was fine with that because it meant Yamal had a lot of space out wide to operate 1 v 1.
Marcus Thuram mentioned in the post match interview that Barcelona are “a nightmare to play against because you have to drop super low to defend against them and it’s really hard to get out of their first pressing line”
This is what he means. Because Barcelona consistently have five guys in the middle, Inter can’t pressure the ball in fear of getting overloaded. They also can’t effectively break from this deep.
Set Pieces were always going to be a point of emphasis for Inter because of their elite ability in the air and that came true in the 20th minute when Dumfries fired one home off a corner.
Lamine Yamal answered four minutes later. There is no analysis here other than he is Lionel Messi.
Barcelona’s plan from this point on was pretty simple, overload to isolate Yamal out wide and let him do damage.
He put Dimarco on the floor a few minutes later and hit the cross bar from an almost impossible angle.
As the match progressed, Hansi Flick took a page out of Vincent Kompany’s book and switched Barcelona to a 2-4-4 build up structure.
The 2-4-4 allows Kounde to push up and pin the right sided midfielder meaning Yamal can get 1 v 1 against Dimarco. It also allows Barcelona to maintain a perfect rest defense around Inter’s defensive block, so they can easily counterpress and win the ball back.
Barcelona equalized off a great ball by Pedri to the back post. It was also a good lesson in what can happen if you don’t pressure the ball and allow these incredibly gifted technical plays to pick out whatever pass they want.
Raphinha plays it back across the face of goals and Ferran Torres beats Acerbi to the spot, simple as that.
Second Half
Inter’s build up was shaky throughout most of the match, but there was a good example of when it works it can be a thing of beauty.
The centerbacks and midfielders interchange positions as Bastoni carries the ball forward.
He passes to Taremi dropping deep who then plays a quick switch ball across to Dumfries in acres of space out wide.
Inter then crash towards the box, which created a 2 v 1 out wide (or 6 v 5 versus Barcelona’s back line).
Dumfries plays Bisseck who makes a run into the half space and the cross eventually gets to Dimarco who puts it over the net. This is textbook Simon Inzaghi ball.
For Barcelona, the plan all match long was pretty simple: get the ball to Lamine Yamal.
Inter could not afford to get overloaded in the middle and Bastoni started to drift wider during the second half to help out.
For the match, Yamal received 28 progressive passes and 82 passes overall. For context, Michael Olise leads Europe’s top five league averaging 14.7 progressive passes received per 90 minutes. So 28 in a single match is simply absurd.
image via fbref.com
Also, Yamal had more penalty box touches himself (16) than Inter did for the entire match (14).
Inter scored again off a set piece by Dumfries simply beating Olmo in the air to make it 3-2.
I mentioned it in my preview, but Inter lead Europe’s top five league in aerial duel win rate and also lead Serie A in both set piece goals and expected goals.
Raphinha then hit an insane goal from outside the box to level the match at 3-3.
Inter took advantage of Barcelona’s high line by utilizing Dumfries in space down the right flank.
They were a big toe away from being up 4-3.
Inter sat in for the remainder of the second half and did a masterful job of keeping Barcelona out of the middle and limiting them to a lot low quality chances.
Conclusion
What a crazy fun match it was. Both teams played to their advantages, which sets up a fascinating second leg.
Lauturo Martinez went off with an injury, which is a huge loss for Inter if he is going to miss the second leg.
Barcelona simply got the ball to Lamine Yamal as much as possible and it paid off. It will be interesting to see if Inter decides to commit more bodies out wide in the second leg, which could leave space for Barcelona centrally.
For Inter, they simply need to continue sticking to counter attacks and set pieces. They won 18 of the 23 aerial duels for the match (which is absurd), so if that continues their crossing and set pieces may take them all the way to the Champions League final.