Inter coach Simone Inzaghi on Wednesday lavished praise on Barcelona’s teenage winger Lamine Yamal after a thrilling 3-3 UEFA Champions League semi-final first-leg draw.
Yamal, 17, scored a superb solo goal in his 100th Barcelona game as the Catalans came back from two goals down and terrified Inter’s defense throughout.
“Yamal is clearly a talent of the type born every 50 years, talents like this I’ve never really seen before,” Inzaghi said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I saw him tonight for the first time and he created problems for us... [Our performance] is a reason for great pride, and Yamal is a phenomenon of the kind born every 50 years,” he said.
Inter kept Yamal quiet for some parts of the second half, which Inzaghi said was the objective after the teenager’s first-half display.
“We adjusted something, we had to be better on Yamal, which is not very simple,” he added.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick also hailed winger Yamal, who rejected comparisons to all-time great Lionel Messi on the eve of the game, but scored a goal the Argentine would have been proud of.
“I’m really happy that this talent that comes every 50 years plays for Barca,” said Flick, when Inzaghi’s words were put to him.
The German coach said Yamal sparked his team’s comeback.
“Lamine in the first half was so important for us, he created so many positive things and got the first goal,” the German coach told reporters.
“He’s special, he’s a genius ... you see all the details and it’s unbelievable how he does this,” he added.
Yamal’s goal made him — at 17 years, 291 days — the youngest scorer in a Champions League semi-final.
He went so close to bettering that moments later when he glided past two defenders and sliced a shot from a sliver of an angle off the crossbar.
“This guy is incredible,” Manchester City striker Erling Haaland posted on SnapChat with a screenshot of Yamal’s shot off the bar.
Additional reporting by AP
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS