[WARNING Inter Barça ce soir] 🚨- LIVE MATCH pour Demi Finale LDC - Sondage 🔴

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La tactique derrière Barcelone vs Inter Milan. Chaud.

How Inter's Tactics Did The Impssible | Tactical Analysis : Barcelona 3-4 Inter Milan |

Barcelona ended with 71% possession. Early on, Inter pressed fiercely even from Barcelona's goal kicks with the front 2 ready to press the 2 center backs with Inter Milan's wingbacks Dumfries and Di Marco backing this up to press Barcelona's fullbacks, Garcia and Martin as they were confident that the physical back 3 could handle anything that came over the top. And this was the case with Szczęsny in the opening exchanges often being forced long more often than not, resulting in turnovers. Barella was also the glue of this press due to his engine. Whenever Thuram or Martinez were caught out of position temporarily or pressing the goalkepper, Barella never hesitated to keep De Jong in his cover shadow while pressing the remaining center back to ensure that Barcelona's back line never had the room to breathe. In early stages it was a combination of Inter's mentality and their setup that made the press successfull because the midfield was always backing it up. It was an unit coordinating. And we see that for the first goal with Di Marco and Dumfries's aggressive positioning in attack and in the press in general allowing Di Marco to be involved in the counter press and helping Inter to win the ball back from Olmo, then beat the offside trap from Barcelona for Dumfries to serve it on a plate for Martinez. But Inter's pressing shape was also showing that there were gaps that Barcelona could exploit. The positioning of Barcelona's wingers was always in consideration for Inter as whenever the wingbacks were pressing, they were exposing these spaces behind them which could lead a winger to receive freely or more likely a wide center back dragged into an isolated position. That's why at times we saw some hesitation from the pressing wingbacks. So especially when Inter Milan went ahead, Dumfries was more conservative in the press, which allowed Gérard Martin to have the space to advance because he wasn't seen as an attacking threat.
So Inter Milan didn't mind him getting the ball and advancing. They would be wrong in the second half. Anyway the front 2 pressing the 2 center backs meant that they couldn't be into controlled posssession phases as easily. Balde's presence in scenarios like this would have allowed Koundé to tuck in as the third man with a left back genuily providing threat high up the pitch. Barcelona would have got a 3 v 2 advantage in Inter Milan's press. But in the first half, Martin was not that big of an attacking threat, while he was not expected to invert either into the back line so instead it was Frenkie De Jong who was almost a full time central center back on the ball. in the build up just to allow Barcelona to hold on to the ball with a 3 v 2 advantage. But this in turn often forced Pedri or Olmo into a deeper position. Having De Jong that deep was not ideal as Flick's strategy was having his midfielders high up to allow them to create central overloads and we saw how threatening Barcelona could be when all of their 3 midfielders were higher up. We saw this when Inter pressed less and Barcelona got into settled positions. Instead of actually using a 4 2 3 1 or always having 2 free number 8, Pedri and Olmo operated deeper almost as a traditional 4 3 3 with they ley being looking to remain on Barella and Mkhitaryan's blind sides for a key reason. Particulary down the Barcelona ride we saw Yamal looking to receive deeper than usual and Di Marco as tight as he could. And because of his positioning behind Mkhitaryan, Bastoni had to push high up as Mkhitaryan couldn't pick up Olmo and this left massive gaps on Barcelona's right hand side which could be an opportunity for Olmo or even rarely Pedri when he drifted across the make the run into. At the same time it created not just isolations for Yamal, but isolations for plenty of room behind his man, which was good for him. But here is the thing.
Trailing, Barcelona began to pour more and more men forwards and as much as possible when defending, they kept the front 2 high, meaning that when Inter Milan won the ball, they always had at least 2 outlet options, Thuram and Martinez, who were expert at playing off to each other. Thuram in particular was masterful at holding up the ball and bringing his teammates into the game. But Inter was not just hitting and hoping to their front 2. The likes of Barella and the 2 wingbacks were looking to provide plenty of support whenever possible. A defining factor in this match was that these 2 teams had 2 things in common : whenever they lost the ball, they looked to counter press. When they won the ball, they looked to be extremely vertical in the counter attack rather than begin a possession phase. This made their transitional phases extremely important because when Barcelona lost the ball, Inter instantly committed men for those vertical passes. If Inter escaped the initial counterpress, they had acres of space to exploit. But if Barcelona was successful in the counterpress, they could take advantages of the spaces in just vacated behind their wingbacks. We saw that at some times. And Inter looked to do the same during transitions, looking to use the space between Barcelona's fullbacks. Whoever,controlled the transitional phases would control the match. It showed that the modern game's currency isn't possession but decisiveness after possession changes. But in reality, both sides struggled to control the transitional phases meaning that there was a lot of ping pong going on in the midfield at times.
During the second half, Gérard Martin decided he would make the most of the space left by Dumfries. He ended up with 129 touches, the most in the game. But rather than sticking to the by line and run into traffic, he produced outstanding crosses, aided by Barcelona committing plenty of men into the box. It led to Martin assisting twice, the first time for Eric Garcia, the right back, and the second time for Dani Olmo. And down the right hand side, the individual quality of Lamine Yamal continued to shine as he completed 14 dribbles during the match, the most by far in this match. Barcelona in general created plenty of chances that could have result as a goal. But despite having only 29% of possession, this was no Catenaccio style. In possession, Inter were interesting. Inter biased their back 5 to the right hand side from the goal kick with the right back moving up to the right wing and the right center back moving up to the right back. This forced Barca into their own lopsided shape with Martin staying deep to handle Dumfries and Raphina wide whilst down to the right, Yamal came narrow on Bastoni and Eric Garcia was very aggressive on Di Marco. But Inter always had the option to go long for their center forwards and more importantly, they only needed a single midfield pivot in the build up phase from the goal kick, which in turn allowed Barella and Mkhitaryan to take up these more advanced positions, ready to support the wide man or to receive the second ball from the center forwards. But the biggest threat came when Inter played short from the goal kick. Barca's left flank was well protected but having Garcia so high up left them vulnerable down their right flank due to the space in behind. Di Marco and Mkhitaryan consistently tried to combine to take advantage of that space.
Whether it was Di Marco looking to find Mkhitaryan, but more often used one two to get Di Marco into dangerous positions in that space, having initially dragged Garcia higher up. Taking advantage of this flank almost led to the opening goal with Bastoni dragging him off central, Di marco then drawing Garcia but this time, Bastoni made the run into the midfield to receive and then again Mkhitaryan was here to take advantage of that space who makes a good cross. It was also clear that Inter Milan would look to take advantage from that Barcelona's high defensive line. They got more occasions to do that than during the first leg. Firstly with Thuram timing his runs better, but also using a multi wave runs with midfield and wingback runners, meaning that Barcelona onlt only had to catch the first runner, but offside, but also the second wave runner, a much tougher proposition. For the entire season, Barcelona thrived in chaos and almost always came out on top but sometimes the champions of Europe aren't crowned for surviving for surviving chaos but rather for controlling chaos when it matters.

While Barcelona is about possession, structured attacks and an extremely high defensive line, Inter are more focused on defending as an unit, creating quick attacks constantly trying to exploit the space a team leaves at the back. From Inter's discipline defensive shape and intense pressing in the first half to the speed and timing in which they committed players forward in transition. Inter had 2 distinctive pressing systems depending on where Barcelona had possession. First one is from high press where Inter adopted a man oriented system with Mkhitaryan mostly pushing further forward to close down De J ong and the 2 wingbacks picking up the fullbacks. For a team looking to build in a 4 2 3 1, a 3 5 2 is a good counter high up the pitch as it leads to a pretty linear match up. This resulted in Barcelona going long relatively frequently from a deep position but would also look to play out from the back. and it's where issues emerged during the first half as Inter were excellent at closing down any player receiving the ball and when they regained possession they instantly had space to attack forward in behind. This is where the opening goal from Inter came from. Olmo was closed down by Di Marco who perfectly found Dumfries through the line on defense, finding himself with Lautaro Martinez in 2 v 1 against the goalkepper. Because they looked to create chances quickly to beat Barcelona's offside trap, the majority of the time, Inter were defending in their own half in a very clear 5 3 2 shape. In this situation there were 2 different approaches on the flanks. On the left, Di Marco was responsible for picking up Yamal and the wide center back was ready to absorb any run into the half space or double up if Di Marco needed support on the flank. Whilst on the right, Dumfries was responsible for picking up the more aggressive left back Gerard Martin with Raphina moving more centrally and picked up by either Bissek or Acerbi.
This shape made a great job at filtering moves through the center with the 2 forwards making sure the first pass would be played out wide, mostly on Barcelona's right flank where Mkhitaryan would then step up to close down the right back Eric Garcia. This allowed to not be outnumbered on the flanks and would close down Barcelona in tricky positions. However, Barcelona did find some opportunities by quickly shifting the move from right to the left, a pattern that we saw a lot in the second half. But even on Barcelona's left flank, the more aggressive use of Dumfries proved to be crucial when defending and it led to their second goal. Inter's shape forced Barcelona out wide on the flank. And with an intercepted pass, Inter already had players running in behind with Martinez who was brought down in the box. And Calhanoglu made it 2 - 0 from the penalty spot after a foul play from Cubarsi on Martinez. Inter's defensive shape was maybe the main reason why they were so dangerous during the first half. From a deep position when they successfully challenged for the ball it meant they had instantly players ready to run in behind. But more often than not, they would rotate possession quickly back to Sommer. This would then drag Barcelona's press forward while Inter would quickly fill the space between the lines in the middle in front of Barcelona's defensive line with Dumfries quickly pushing forward on the right flank. It meant that any long ball into this space would be dominated by Inter Milan who had more physical players than Barcelona in this position. From here it was a case of trying to beat Barcelona's high line. Barcelona caught Inter 9 times offside during this match but they were also saved by their goalkepper Szczęsny on multiple occasions to step off his line to close down any runner in behind. This shape meant that any pass in behind Barcelona's defense needs to be perfectly weighted into a very specific space.

Too hard and the goalkepper gets it first but wait a fraction of second too long and the strikers are offside. Even when in possession, Inter's build up was focused on getting players forward quickly. A few times on the first half, Di Marco would rush foward to receive the ball in space before looking to play in behind. On other occasions it was the wide center back who was ready to push forward, safe in knowing that Yamal would not track back to follow him into the midfield. For all their possession into the first half, Barcelona struggled to create clear cut opportunities. A lot of that is due to an excellent defensive performance from Di Marco and Bastoni on Barcelona's right flank, being able to keep Yamal relatively quiet. But that changed during the second half. In the first half, Eric Garcia was used in a slightly more defensive position which allowed Mkhitaryan to effectively cover whilt also not exposing the center of the pitch too frequently. However, soon into the second half, Garcia started to push more frequently. This meant Yamal could move into a more central position or at most had more support on the flank and made life much harder for Di Marco and Bastoni who now had an extra player to deal with. This is what led to Barcelona's first goal with play shifting from the right to the left and Garcia meeting the cross from Martin completly unmarked into the box.

But things got much worse around the 60th minute. And it was a substitution that allowed Barcelona to gain even more control on the pitch. Di Marco was replaced by Carlos Augusto. Suddently, Yamal was not being contained as effectively. Firstly there was more space for him to run into with Augusto adopting a more cautious position. And with the high position of Eric Garcia, the right flank started to be dominated more and more by Barcelona. Suddently Inter looked to be exhausted. Sommer kept them into the lead after a phenomenal save from Barcelona's lighting counter. But they were caught soon in the back post with Dani Olmo having a free header. Barcelona's dominance continued for the second half and Inter couldn't hold on to the ball and create any dangerous opportunity. Eventually, Barceelona's pressure paid off and they scored a third goal, scored by Raphina after regaining possession high up the pitch. Almost everyone thought that Barcelona would complete definitly their remontada. However, Acerbi used as a center forward into the dying minutes of the game caused chaos, taking the game into extra time. In extra time, both teams looked to continue with a similar game plan albeit with more exhausted players. But it was the physical presence of Inter's front line that proved to be the defining factor with Thuram fighting past Barcelona's back line from Sommer's goal kick and Taremi laying the ball perfectly for Frattesi to score the winning goal. Then Sommer saved Inter on multiple occasions and Barcelona couldn't come back into the game.

Comme toujours, sur des détails. Là, on aura classico Barça Real (demain) puis le 31, PSG qui va tenter d'avoir sa première LDC.