Inter Milan managed to hold off Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates to cling on for a 3-2 aggregate victory and book a place at the Santiago Bernabau Stadium for the Champions League Final.Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan team put in a sterling effort to reach the final at the expense of last years' winners. The Italian team provided a defensive masterclass, and played the majority of the match with just 10 men, having had influential midfielder, and former Barcelona player himself, Thiago Motta, sent off with over an hour left.
Having shocked the holders with a magnificent performance to win 3-1 in the first leg at the San Siro, Inter Milan would have expected to be kept under the cosh from the word go.
So it turned out, though for much of the match, Barcelona's performance seemed to be uncharacteristically sluggish and slow.
With 30 minutes on the clock, came one of the main talking points of the entire match. Thiago Motta, already on a yellow card, seemed to hand-off Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets in the face, and the Spaniard's over-reaction certainly seemed to fool the referee, as the Inter man was given a straight red card. The incensed Motta then went back over to Busquets, fuming, and grabbed him again, only to be escorted off the pitch by the other players. An angry Jose Mourinho on the touchline applauded the Barcelona fans, seeming to say that they were the ones who had had his man sent off.
Even a man up though, Barcelona never seemed to reach the highest gears they are known to be so capable of. Lionel Messi was one again outplayed by the magnificent Inter Milan defence, and Zlatlan Ibrahimovic again failed to fire against his old team, adding fuel to the fire of those who say he is unable to perform on the biggest stage.
As the second half wore on, Inter looked set to see out the draw to put them through. The drama though, was far from over.
Young substitute striker Bojan had a golden chance to put Barca ahead, only to miss his header from yards away.
With six minutes remaining however, Gerard Pique, a centre-back playing as an extra striker to help find a goal cleverly slotted into the bottom corner to put the home side 1-0 up on the night, though still behind on aggregate.
Cue mayhem from the already vociferous Nou Camp crowd of 98,000, who went into frenzy mode as their team surged forwards in search of the winner.
And in injury time, with seconds left to play, Barcelona thought they'd won it, when Bojan again popping up, this time slamming a shot into the roof of the net. Barcelona thought they had stolen the victory, but the referee had other ideas, ruling the goal out for a handball earlier in the move. This was one of a number of strange decisions from the officials on a night when neither manager would have been particularly pleased with their performance.
Jose Mourinho leapt onto the pitch as the final whistle blew, hands aloft, celebrating what he later called the "greatest win of his career".
Inter Milan will now go on to the final on 22 May in Madrid to play German giants Bayern Munich, who dispatched of Lyon 3-0 on Tuesday night thanks to an Ivica Olic hat-trick, sealing a 4-0 victory on aggregate.
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