Barcelona vs Inter: Yamal earns plaudits after Champions League heroics

Barcelona vs Inter: Yamal earns plaudits after Champions League heroics

Simone Inzaghi said talents like the Barcelona teenager only come around once in a half-century after seeing from the touchline how Lamine Yamal pushed his Inter Milan lineup to the limit.

After helping Barcelona draw 3-3 on Wednesday in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal, Yamal said, “He’s the kind of talent that is born every 50 years, I had never seen him live and he really impressed me today.”

In the final 25 minutes of the first half, Lamine Yamal “made us so many problems.”

At the age of 17, Yamal became the youngest player to score in a Champions League semifinal, surpassing Kylian Mbappe’s record set at age 18 when he did it in 2017.

After Yamal performed his most recent talent show in his 100th game for the senior squad, Barcelona coach Hansi Flick described his 17-year-old player as “a genius.”

He is unique. He’s a genius, Flick said, as I’ve already said it before.

He appears in the big matches, and I believe he enjoyed the circumstance. I’m delighted that this talent exists for Barcelona, even if it only exists every 50 years, as Simone Simone did.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Inter Milan (left), who was dribbled past by Yamal, described the player as a “player who shines” [Albert Gea/Reuters]

“Truly unbelievable,”

In his first press conference for his club the day before Inter arrived in town, Yamal vehemently denied any comparisons to Messi. However, his performance recalled Messi’s best days, when his teammates gave him passes and let him out of Inter on the right flank.

When he had the ball, he either searched for a teammate in the lead or drew his head and sprinted past his marker. And he set out to create a YouTube compilation.

With a 2-0 lead and the momentum provided by Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries’ goals, it appeared as though Inter had left Yamal with nowhere to go in the 24th. However, he slipped around one defender, sped past a second, and then curled a shot past at least two more Inter players with his left foot while slipping around. The ball was cradled in the net after hitting the far post.

Moments later, when he glided past two defenders and sliced a shot from a small angle off the crossbar, he was so close to improving.

Erling Haaland, the striker for Manchester City, shared a screenshot of Yamal’s shot off the bar on Snapchat, saying, “This guy is incredible.

Rio Ferdinand, a former football player for Manchester United, put Yamal in front of everyone else in the top five football leagues in the world.

Ferdinand wrote in a post on X that it was “truly unbelievable.”

Young player thirsty for more

Before Raphinha took over and sent a ball down for Torres to score 2-2 before halftime, Yamal sent back passes to Ferran Torres and Dani Olmo for back-to-back saves saved by Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Before Raphinha’s long-range strike, which found the net, ensured the draw, Dumfries once more put Inter ahead. However, Yamal was disappointed that the final attempt to find a winner failed.

“He is a good footballer, the entire world can see.” Henrikh Mkhitaryan, an international midfielder, described him as a “player who shines”.

Because he has great talent, we tried to stop him, but it was very challenging. Next week, I hope we don’t let him play this much.

Yamal acknowledged the praise but stated that he only wanted to concentrate on the upcoming game, which will feature a European Cup that is only two games away.

He said, “I’m happy I’ve helped the team, but we need to get better.”

Source: Aljazeera

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