Josep Martínez, the Valencian goalkeeper for Inter Milan, ran over an 81-year-old man in a wheelchair with his car on Tuesday morning. According to The Republic, the victim died instantly.

Barça's executioner in the Champions League semi-finals, Francesco Acerbi, is no ordinary guy. "Me? I've lived a thousand lives," the veteran 37-year-old Inter defender once said. The scorer of the equalizer in the final minute of the match—which forced extra time—is one of those annoying players who tends to cross certain lines when he plays. In the quarter-finals, instead of celebrating qualification, he laughed in Thomas Müller's face in an unsportsmanlike gesture. Against Barça, he spent the semi-finals trying to unnerve Lamine Yamal with dirty tactics. Opponents can't even stand him, and Inter fans adore him. Criticism doesn't bother him at all, as he's been through hell, as he likes to say.

"I think this team has earned the respect of all of Europe. When the players return home and look in the mirror, I think they can be proud of what they have done," said Hansi Flick in the press room at the Meazza shortly after the match. the cruel defeat against Inter. The coach appeared at the press conference with a serious demeanor and exhausted after a match in which he could barely sit down on the bench due to the intensity of the match. Aside from congratulating a group of players he has endowed with an ironclad mentality unthinkable at the beginning of the season, he wanted to emphasize the importance of the match against Real Madrid: "It's a very tough defeat. We want the Champions League and next year we'll try again, but now it's time to get up and think that, in four days, we'll face Real Madrid and we'll face Real Madrid."

A decade without end. 10 years waiting for a final that never arrived. Barça was one step away from returning to a Champions League final for the first time after reaching heaven in Berlin in 2015 by defeating Juventus in that final led by Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suárez. As life goes, Inter's opponent in the Allianz Arena final could be PSG, coached by Luis Enrique, the manager who 10 years ago achieved the treble with Barça. It would be a truly wicked twist of fate.

Barça won't be playing in the Champions League final. Not this one. A narrow 4-3 defeat after extra time puts an end to Hansi Flick's men's journey to the top continental competition. But it doesn't matter. The significance of these last few months of competition goes far beyond that. Everything hurts now, but time will tell. Here are some quick notes.

Barça had heaven within reach of Milan, but just as they were edging towards their umpteenth comeback of the Hansi Flick era, their hopes were dashed by an Acerbi goal in added time that sent the match into cruel extra time. With two minutes left in the 90 minutes, it looked like Raphinha was about to work a miracle, overturning a 2-0 first-half deficit that, as in the first leg, was the result of individual errors. Inter, despite suffering heavily, made the most of their home advantage to eventually prevail in a tie (4-3) that, despite the outcome, once again makes Barça one of the most respected teams in Europe. The team, which fought until their last breath, ended up playing with a back three with Araujo, Gerard, and Héctor Fort. It will be a long time before they return to a Champions League final, but the journey to this point has filled Barcelona fans with a sense of hope that must now be translated against Real Madrid at Montjuïc.

Hansi Flick likes vertigo, having a good time, and squeezing life to the fullest, despite the potential dangers that come with it. If he had to choose between sorrow and nothingness, he would choose sorrow, like William Faulkner. This way of facing the world from the bench of a football team entails being relentlessly daring. in the final minutes of a Champions League semi-final first leg match that you have tied as play the League in Valladolid with a series of players who, throughout the season, have proven not to inspire confidence or have simply not been available.

Barça failed to beat Inter Milan at home (3-3), But he's loaded up on arguments to believe he can do just that at the Giuseppe Meazza. Below, we'll list a few, starting with the individual and ending with the collective.

A brutal draw in a spectacular Champions League match between Barça and Inter Milan. Here are some quick notes.

Vittorio Boiocchi, the long-time leader of the Curva Nord, the Inter Milan ultras collective, was shot five times in October 2022 outside his home near Milan. He was 69 years old and had known links to the Calabrian Facchineri clan and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. On April 11, two and a half years after the events, Italian police arrested six men linked to a murder that investigators believe was linked to a rivalry to control lucrative activities around the Giuseppe Meazza stadium (the name of San Siro when Inter plays) on match days and over the hierarchy.

Vittorio Boiocchi, the long-time leader of the Curva Nord, the Inter Milan ultras collective, was shot five times in October 2022 outside his home near Milan. He was 69 years old and had known links to the Calabrian Facchineri clan and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. On April 11, two and a half years after the events, Italian police arrested six men linked to a murder that investigators believe was linked to a rivalry to control lucrative activities around the Giuseppe Meazza stadium (the name of San Siro when Inter plays) on match days and over the hierarchy of the Curva Nord.

Inter Milan, current Italian champions and Serie A leaders, will be Barça's rival in the European Cup semi-final. The club was born from a split from AC Milan on March 9, 1908. It took place at the Ristorante Orologio in the Lombard capital, and the will was clearly cosmopolitan: "This wonderful night grants us the colors of our crest: black and blue on a golden background of stars." More than a century has passed, and Inter is, on its own merits, one of the greatest clubs in Italy and the entire continent. Today, in terms of football, we are talking about the most stable and powerful project in the transalpine country. Simone Inzaghi has been their coach since the summer of 2021 and, beyond the titles, he has laid some very solid foundations.