Barcelona still need a miracle after a ‘heart-stopping’ 3-3 draw with Inter Milan left their Champions League hopes on a cliff edge.
Robert Lewandowski stopped their European campaign ending early by scoring in the second minute of stoppage time, right after Inter’s bench had spilled onto the Camp Nou pitch to celebrate what looked like a winner.
A win for the Nerazzurri would have dumped European giants Barca into the Europa League and financial hell, but that still looks highly likely with Inter needing three points from their final two games against Bayern Munich and a pointless Viktoria Plzen.
Barcelona will need to win against both Plzen and Bayern in that scenario, or hope for the unlikely event that Inter lose both games, one against a Czech team that have so far conceded 16 goals in four games.
Their slim chances would have evaporated entirely if it wasn’t for Lewandowski though, with the Pole twice coming to the rescue with his team getting trampled on.
Ousmanne Demebele had given the Catalans a 1-0 half-time lead, but a chaotic second 45 was dominated by the Italians, who twice led, only for Lewandowski to turn up in what Mundo Deportivo called a ‘heart-stopping and uncontrolled ending’.
The striker first made it 2-2 as a deflected effort wrong-footed Andre Onana in the Inter net, but a defensive collapse from the home team saw Robin Gosens slot in all-alone.
The bench spilled onto the pitch to celebrate the German’s 89th minute goal, but it was too much too soon, as Lewandowski later powered in a header to keep his team alive.
Just how alive they will be remains to be seen, with much of the club’s summer refinancing and debt reconstruction based on success in the competition, Mundo Deportivo say they now ‘need a miracle’.
As Spanish football expert Graham Hunter explained to talkSPORT earlier this year: “In terms of LaLiga, it doesn’t [pay].
“LaLiga’s development is slower than the Premier League, [but] the Champions League does.
“A while ago for winning the Champions League you might be taking in €85-€90million, currently if you have a good stab in the Champions League and finish top six or top four, you’re talking about €120/€130m.
“If they’re competitive for one or two seasons in the Champions League it vastly eats into the short term and long term debt, the fact about the gamble is, if you don’t pull it off, then you’ve wrongly mortgaged your future.”
Next up for Barcelona is Real Madrid in LaLiga, meaning it won’t be a good time to be Culer with a nervous disposition.
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