With the score at 3-3, the action kept flowing. It felt like the closing stages of a second leg, with Inter not keen to settle for the draw they may have wanted to take back to San Siro next week.
Before the away-goals rule was discontinued by UEFA in summer 2021 — meaning away goals were the decider in two-legged ties that finished in an aggregate draw — teams who were 3-3 up were generally happy to keep that scoreline knowing a 0-0, 1-1, or 2-2 draw in the return leg would be enough to progress.
Jose Mourinho’s Inter, who won at Barca on the way to the 2010 Champions League trophy and the treble, would definitely have been in ‘what we have, we hold’ mode.
But not this Inter side, who kept pushing forward — even after Raphinha’s equaliser had appeared to swing the momentum back Barca’s way. Current coach Simone Inzaghi made positive substitutions, and his team continued to look to exploit Barca’s rocky defensive high line.
Barca experienced a let-off when the officials did not punish an apparent handball by Inigo Martinez, and they escaped again when only the narrowest of offside calls stopped Henrikh Mkhitaryan from making it 4-3.
It made for tremendous drama — and if the scrapping of the away goals rule had any part in the entertainment, it has been a welcome change.
