Heartbreak for Barça as treble dream dies in San Siro epic

The story of what could have been. An all-time epic that could have been a rewriting of the history books for FC Barcelona. What could have been a victory found from digging deeper than ever before in the most difficult of circumstances.

Ultimately, Inter Milan go through to the final after an enthralling showdown, which included comeback after comeback, ended 7-6 on aggregate to the Italians.

This story was practically written for the Catalans when Raphinha’s bullet finish in the 87th minute looked to have completed an extraordinary comeback. By that point, Barça had been dancing around the sluggish Inter defenders who looked like they had no more to give.

This itself was a remarkable turnaround after the utter dominance of the hosts in the first half, with Inter going into the break with a 2-0 lead, with the Catalans looking overpowered and out of their depth.

Barça dusted themselves down and, just like in the first leg last week, forcefully grabbed control of the game, asserting their presence on the ball, and wearing out the Inter defence with incisive passing and movement. Whereas in the first half, Inter were able to beat the visitors’ offside trap, now their forwards started to look lead-footed after the break.

An excellent Eric Garcia finish, a Dani Olmo rocket header, and Raphinha's cherry on top rounded off a magnificent comeback to make it 2-3 heading into injury time. 

Possibly the moment of greatest heartbreak for Barcelona will be Lamine Yamal's fabulously struck shot hitting the post which could have made it 2-4 in the 91st minute. So clean was the effort, it was easy to think the Catalans were beginning to toy with their defeated and drained hosts.

But this semi-final proved to be a story of endurance, a slogfest, an Ironman event with a ball chaotically thrown into the middle of it and two sets of players with fascinatingly contrasting approaches trying to make the most sense out of how to use it.

After suffering the Barça onslaught, it was Inter's turn to bravely embark forward against the odds, with the clock running against their favour. Somehow, centre back Francesco Acerbi found himself pinning Araujo back to dispatch a perfect cross into the roof of the net in the 93rd minute. 

It seemed certain that Hansi Flick's outfit were destined for the showpiece final in Munich at the end of the month, but instead, the 3-3 equalizing goal was a moment that perfectly encapsulated the vulnerability of this Barcelona team. Araujo would have one of Barcelona's last half-chances at the end of extra time, and his marker then, Stefan de Vrij, did exactly what Araujo didn't do against Acerbi, and threw his body first to the ball and away from danger. 

Barcelona's weakness at the back was even more evident in added time when Thuram easily turned Araujo to cross, and Taremi and Frattesi had no issue dealing with Cubarsí and the rest of the back line. Inter were back in front. 

At the other end, Yann Sommer in the nerazzuri net pulled off three world-class saves through the night to frustrate and deny the Catalans. The last of those came in the dying moments as Lamine Yamal, who despite having no front-page moments to bask in tonight was still a constant thorn in Inter's side and was a hair's breadth away from sentencing the tie on numerous occasions, was once again denied by the outstretched fingertips of the Swiss stopper. 

Barcelona's treble dream ended on Tuesday night, but they will have to react to this gut-wrenching result, as on Sunday they welcome Real Madrid in La Liga with only four points separating the sides. 

Just over one year ago, the club bounced bizarrely back-and-forth from Xavi leaving to staying to leaving again. Despite the defeat to Inter, this is a completely renewed Barça team under the guidance of Flick, who now is on the cusp of only a domestic treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Super Cup.

The decision to hire Flick has been a resounding success. This young squad will learn some tough lessons from this bitter San Siro disappointment, but come back next season afresh and even more eager.