Barcelona was a few minutes away from being eliminated this Wednesday from the Champions League. Inter Milan entered the Camp Nou and scored a three into the net of a shaky Barcelona defense.
Late in the game, Inter’s Robin Gosens put the visitors up 3-2. However, superstar striker Robert Lewandowski scored in added time to level the score. In doing so, he provided a lifeline, however narrow, to Barcelona in the Champions League this season. In addition, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made a series of key and spectacular saves at the end.
Despite the drama, the Catalans still face a huge climb to qualify for the knockout round. In Group C, Barcelona sit third with four points. Inter, who beat Barcelona a week ago at the San Siro, are three points clear.
Barcelona no longer have control of the Champions League
Therefore, Inter Milan can secure a place in the knockout stage with a victory over Viktoria Plzeň or Bayern Munich. Inter now own the key tie-break in the group stage, head-to-head record. Barcelona need Inter to drop points in both games, at home to Plzeň and away to Bayern on Matchday 6, to stand a chance.
Barcelona knows its destiny in the Champions League in two weeks. Anything less than a win against Bayern and a draw or loss for Inter condemns the club to the Europa League.
Around the pitch on matchday four
Speaking of Bayern Munich, the Germans qualified for the next stage of the UCL with a 4-2 away win against Viktoria Plzeň. Despite domestic difficulties, Bayern advanced in the Champions League. The Bavarians have four wins from four matches, scoring 13 and conceding two.
Not to be outdone, Napoli are perhaps the hottest team in Europe in current form. The Italians defeated visiting Ajax, 4-2. Like Bayern, Napoli punched their ticket to the knockout stage with two games to go. Those four goals came from four different scorers. Hirving Lozano, Giacomo Raspadori, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen finished off the reigning Dutch champions.
The Italian club have now scored a staggering 17 group stage goals in just four games so far this season. Overall, Napoli have won 11 of their 13 games during the current campaign. The only two games he has failed to win were draws in Serie A.
Club Brugge also qualified for the knockout round. However, unlike the two aforementioned big clubs, the Belgian champions of a year ago will play a knockout match in the competition for the first time in the team’s history.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Pressinphoto
