Inter Milan vs Barcelona, Champions League: Team News, Preview, Lineups, Score Prediction

FC Internazionale Milano (3) vs (3) FC Barcelona

Competition/Round: 2024-25 UEFA Champions League, Semi-Finals, 2nd Leg

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-André ter Stegen, Alejandro Balde, Pablo Torre, Marc Casadó, Jules Kounde, Marc Bernal (out)

Inter Outs & Doubts: Lautaro Martínez, Benjamin Pavard (doubt)

Date/Time: Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Wednesday)

Venue: San Siro, Milan, Italy

Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)

VAR: Dennis Higler (NED)

How to watch on TV: CBS (USA), SuperSport (Nigeria), SONY TEN 2 (India), Movistar (Spain), others

How to watch online: Paramount+ (USA), Amazon Prime Video (UK), Sony LIV (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others

Following a hard-fought win over Valladolid at the weekend to stay in control of the La Liga title race, Barcelona travel to Italy for a monster game as the Catalans face Inter Milan in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals at the iconic San Siro on Tuesday night.

Barça come into this one looking to book a spot in the title match in Munich at the end of the month and reach their first European final in 10 years, which would be a monumental achievement for a coach and squad that weren’t expected to be anywhere near this stage at the beginning of the season.

From a big picture perspective, this season will be a massive success even if Barça don’t finish the job on Tuesday. If they do go on to win La Liga and finish the campaign with all three domestic trophies plus a deep run in Europe while playing some of the best and most entertaining football we’ve seen from the Blaugrana in a decade, it’s impossible not to be full of hope and excitement for the near future under Hansi Flick.

At the same time, it would be heartbreaking not to see Barça finish an incredible European campaign with a chance to play for all the glory at the Allianz Arena. They have worked so hard to get here, but have paid the price for that as they arrive at the biggest game of their continental season missing two key pieces at the back and their top scorer up front.

Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde will not play on Tuesday, and their absence is particularly damaging given the Blaugrana defense’s struggles with set pieces and counter-attacks last week. Balde’s ability to provide attacking width on the left is also a big deal, and Kounde’s absence puts even more pressure on Lamine Yamal to basically go one-on-three against the Inter defense on the right wing.

Robert Lewandowski will be in the squad and could make a late cameo in the second half if Barça are forced to chase the game, but the Pole won’t be counted upon to have a big role in this one either. Barça are wounded and couldn’t get a first leg victory at home, so it’s not crazy to say that Inter are now the slight favorites to advance at home.

Simone Inzaghi’s team have been here before, and they played really well last week. Even if they’re without their talisman in Lautaro Martínez, who is facing an uphill battle to be fit after getting injured last week, they have proven to have more than enough individual and collective talent to create big scoring chances and find the net in front of what should be an absolutely wild crowd at San Siro.

It will take a truly heroic effort from Barça to pull this off. Inter are healthier and playing at home, but the Catalans are good enough to weather an expected early storm, keep the game close, and lean on their best players to have the game of their lives. Flick needs to push all of the right buttons from the sideline, and we should be prepared to possibly suffer for 120 minutes or maybe even penalties.

This will be tense, tight, and decided on details. After such a crazy and high-scoring first leg the tendency is for things to settle down in the return match with so much at stake, and Barça must be mentally strong to survive the tough moments and stay in the game even if things look ugly at times.

Playing well or playing pretty doesn’t matter. This is truly about heart, desire, and delivering quality in key moments. Barça used to thrive in times like these, but that was a long time ago. They need to learn how to win the biggest games again, and this is the perfect chance to do so against the odds.

Let’s dance.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsí, Iñigo; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Ferran

Inter (3-5-2): Sommer; Bisseck, Acerbi, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, Çalhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Thuram, Lautaro

PREDICTION

My original prediction when I first wrote this preview was a 2-1 Inter win, but as the hours went on I got this funny feeling that Barça will find a way to win this and show their trademark resilience under Flick, along with a moment of magic or two from Lamine Yamal and another big European night for Raphinha: 2-1 to the good guys, maybe in extra-time, but I believe we’re going to Munich.

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