Inter Milan falls short on Champions League match day 6 again

This was supposed to be the year things changed for Inter Milan.

They brought in Antonio Conte who has won everywhere he has managed. They made marquee signings all summer, bringing in Nicolo Barella, Diego Godin, and Romelu Lukaku. They got rid of their biggest distraction, Mauro Icardi, loaning him out to PSG. However, when the big moment arrived, they fell short again.

We saw this last year. They went into match day 6 tied with Tottenham, but needed a better result than Tottenham to advance because Tottenham held a tie breaker. The London club seemed to have an easy path to advance. All they needed to do was beat Barcelona’s reserves. They couldn’t do that, settling for a 1-1 draw and opening the door for Inter Milan. All they had to do was beat

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an already eliminated PSV Eindhoven in Milan. Unfortunately, they couldn’t accomplish that and also settled for a 1-1 draw, sending them down to Europa League.

This year, they got the reverse situation. All they needed to do was match Borussia Dortmund’s result against Slavia Prague. They even got to play Barcelona’s reserves at home, with a win guaranteeing they would advance to the Champions League knockout stages. Borussia Dortmund got their win. Inter didn’t.

Inter even managed to give their fans hope throughout the match. Early on, there was Romelu Lukaku’s cut back inside the box, which he ended up shooting off of a Barca defender. Then there was a Cristiano Biraghi shot from the left side of the box that was saved by Norberto Neto. Even after Barca opened the scoring with Perez’s 23rd minute goal, Inter continued to put pressure on Barca’s defense. In fact, Lukaku managed to equalize the match before halftime with a deflected shot from outside the box.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as they would get to advancing as the second half was full of disappointment for Inter. There were multiple goals ruled out because of offside on Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. Even worse, Lukaku ended up 1 on 1 against Neto after muscling past a Barca defender, but wasn’t able to beat Neto from extremely close range.

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Eventually, Ansu Fati would make Inter pay for their wasted opportunities. In the 86th minute, he became the youngest scorer ever in the Champions League with a wonder goal that would take away all hope for Inter. The loss extended their run of seasons without making it to the Champions League knockout stages to 8. This wasn’t what Inter Milan fans were expecting when they made all of their big moves this summer, but it should make it a little bit easier for them to try to hold on to their lead in Serie A and end Juventus’ Scudetto reign without another competition to focus on.

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