Hakan Calhanoglu scored the only goal of the match in first-half stoppage time as Inter beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday to move second behind Bayern Munich,
which seems set to run away with the group.
Both sides also had goals disallowed and Barcelona hit the post.
Bayern routed Viktoria Plzen 5-0 earlier to maintain its perfect start
to the competition and it has also yet to concede a goal.
with Calhanoglu ,
That leaves Barcelona and Inter seemingly fighting it out for second spot and the battle will resume at Camp Nou next Wednesday.
Watch the strange defeat goal of Barca vs Inter Milan!!
Both Inter and Barcelona had experienced similar starts in the Champions League,
beating Plzen and losing 2-0 to Bayern. But they have had contrasting domestic form. Barcelona topped the Spanish league table
after winning its previous six league matches, while Inter had lost four of its last six Serie A games to leave coach Simone Inzaghi under pressure.
Inzaghi’s game plan was clearly to defend in numbers
and counter at pace and that almost led to the opening goal but Marc-Andre ter Stegen did well to fingertip Calhanoglu’s powerful,
30-yard effort over the bar.
Inter thought it should have got a penalty midway
through the first half for a handball by Barcelona defender Eric Garcia but play was waved on and,
after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor,
referee Slavko Vincic decided that Nerazzurri forward Lautaro Martinez had been offside in the buildup and interfering with play despite not touching the ball.
The home side did have the ball in the back of the net a few minutes later
but Joaquin Correa had been marginally offside when he collected Federico Dimarco’s pass and raced forward before rounding Ten Stegen and depositing into an empty net.
Inter broke the deadlock on the stroke of halftime when Dimarco
laid the ball off to Calhanoglu on the edge of the area and he drilled a precise effort into the bottom left corner to set the San Siro rocking.
Barcelona almost leveled in the 61st but Ousmane Dembele’s effort came off the left post.
The visitors thought they had got the equalizer shortly afterward
when Inter goalkeeper Andre Onana flapped at a cross from the right and Pedri tapped in at the back post but,
after again taking to the pitchside monitor, Vincic disallowed it for a handball by Ansu Fati immediately prior to the shot.
Barcelona’s hopes of progressing through the Champions League group stage were dealt a blow after falling to Inter,
with Robert Lewandowski’s poor performance a big reason why.
The Nerazzurri now sit three points up in the fight for second in Group C ahead of next week’s return match a the Camp Nou.
Barcelona will be hoping Lewandowski has more influence then,
as the striker was expertly marked out of the match by Simone Inzaghi’s men on Tuesday night.
The first scoring chance came from Inter,
with a counterattack that ended with Calhanoglu’s shot from outside: Ter Stegen did well to deflect it into a corner kick. Then var becomes the protagonist,
which first does not validate a clear penalty for Inter due to an offside by Lautaro and later cancels Correa’s goal again for offside.
Barcelona pushed but at the end of the first half it was Inter who took the lead. In the 47th minute,
the Nerazzurri score the 1-0 with Calhanoglu:
the Turkish midfielder finds the corner with a beautiful rasoterrra from outside the box.
Barcelona’s first real chance came in the 61st minute,
with Dembelé hitting the post from a deflected position after Onana’s decisive touch. Barcelona pushed on, even managing to momentarily find 1-1,
but Pedri’s goal was disallowed for a hand touch by Ansu Fati. In the 88th minute,
a thrill for the Nerazzurri: Kessie’s free kick,
Busquets gets there first but from an excellent position he fails to get a good impact. The 8′ of recovery does not scare the hosts, who resist and manage to bring home 3 crucial points.
Hakan Çalhanoğlu scored the only goal of the match in first-half stoppage time as Inter beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Champions League
on Tuesday to move second behind Bayern Munich,
which seems set to run away with the group.
Both sides also had goals disallowed and Barcelona hit the post.
