Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho described his team’s qualification for the Champions League final as the greatest moment of his life.
Inter beat Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in their semi-final despite losing the second leg 1-0 and playing an hour of the game at the Nou Camp with 10 men.
Mourinho’s Inter, who won the first game 3-1 last week, will face Bayern Munich in the final on May 22 in Madrid.
“It’s the greatest moment of my career,” said Mourinho. “For the players, me, the fans, it’s the greatest.”
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Inter Milan reached the Champions League final last night by beating Barcelona 3 – 2 on aggregate after having to play with only 10 men for more than an hour.
After losing last week’s semi-final first leg in Milan 3-1, Barca’s hopes of meeting Bayern Munich in Madrid on May 22 were lifted when Inter defender Thiago Motta clashed with Sergio Busquets in the 28th minute and was sent off.
The home fans filled the vast Nou Camp arena with noise and Barca dominated possession but struggled to create clear chances.
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Bayern Munich beat Lyon 1 – 0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final despite having Franck Ribery sent off.
Bayern enjoyed the better of a game, which both sides ended with just 10 men, but they were only rewarded with a slender advantage to take to the Stade Gerland next Tuesday.
Ribery was shown a straight red card for the hosts in the 37th minute but Jeremy Toulalan collected two yellows early in the second half to even things up.
And it was then left to Arjen Robben to steal the headlines as he followed up his quarter-final goal against Manchester United with a deflected shot to put Bayern marginally ahead in a finely poised tie.
After 10 minutes of getting to know each other, Bayern launched the first wave of attacks with Daniel van Buyten getting on the end of an Ivica Olic cross in the 12th minute, but sending his volley high and wide.
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Inter Milan made a brilliant comeback from 0 – 1 down to to beat title holders Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League semifinal first leg at the San Siro on Tuesday.
Goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito extinguished Pedro’s opener for Barca and sent the nerazzuri faithful into raptures ahead of next week’s second leg at Camp Nou.
It was a tactical masterclass from Jose Mourinho as his team wiped out memories of the footballing lessons Barca gave them in the group stages back in September and November.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was magnanimous in defeat and refused to blame the team’s 14-hour coach journey for the loss.
“This can happen, especially when you’re playing in the semifinal of the Champions League and against Inter Milan,” he said.
“Of course it’s not ideal losing like this but we can still do it.
“The result is not good, we gave away too many balls, we can do better. This wasn’t our best game and Inter don’t make it easy for you to play.
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Manchester United looked certain winners after the first half of their Champions League encounter with Bayern Munich on Wednesday, but Bayern reached the semifinals on away goals after a 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford.
Arjen Robben’s sumptuous volley 16 minutes from time sealed an unlikely away goals triumph for Bayern whose 2-1 first leg lead was wiped out inside seven tumultuous minutes.
With Wayne Rooney making a surprise return for United after damaging ankle ligaments in the first leg, Bayern were stunned when Darron Gibson and Nani put United 2-0 up on the night and looked dead and buried when Nani struck again after 41 minutes.
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Lionel Messi was on top form again at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night when Barcelona crushed Arsenal 4 – 1 in their Champions League encounter.
You know a player is very good when the opposition’s manager hits world headline praising him. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manger is singing Lionel Messi’s praises at the top of his voice this morning in spite of the fact that the Argentinian national wiped his team out of the Champions league single handedly with a crushing 4 -1 victory.
The night started off OK for Arsenal when Nicklas Bendtner fired the Gunners into a shock lead on 18 minutes. But their joy was short-lived as Messi struck a brilliant 21-minute hat-trick, before compounding Arsenal’s misery with a fourth late on.
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Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is reported to have a 40% chance of making a shock return to action in this week’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich.
The striker’s sprained ankle is believed to be recovering far quicker than previously expected and he could yet feature against the Germans on Wednesday despite officially being ruled out of action for “two to three weeks” after being injured in last week’s first-leg tie.
According to The Guardian, ‘Rooney has responded well to treatment and could be in line for a surprise recall to Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad if he comes through a training session today.
‘Ferguson will not risk the England forward if there is a chance of aggravating the injury further and last night United’s medical staff attempted to play down the chances of a comeback by only rating his chances of playing as “40%”.’
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Arsenal’s European dream alive by Cesc Fabregas after the Gunners came from 2-0 down to draw the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona at Emirates Stadium last night.
The Spaniards had lived up to their billing as favourites following a blistering start and a second-half double from Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked to have all but killed off the tie.
However, Theo Walcott came off the bench to pull a goal back before Fabregas – who will miss the second leg at his old club after being booked – smashed in a late penalty after Carles Puyol was sent off for fouling the midfielder in the box.
While Barcelona will still be favourites to progress, Arsene Wenger’s young side again showed great character and could yet prove their doubters wrong once more with a similarly courageous display in the Nou Camp.
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Bayern Munich beat Manchester United 2 – 1 with an injury-time goal by Ivica Olic in their Champions League quarterfinal first leg on Tuesday.
The match was eagerly anticipated as a re-run of the famous thrilling Champions League final in 1999 when two dramatic goals right at the end of the game took the trophy to Old Trafford in a devastating blow to the Germans.
This time round, United struck right at the beginning of the match, with England striker Wayne Rooney latching on to a deflected free kick and smashing home a close-range volley for his 34th goal of the season with only 66 seconds played.
Bayern were left to rue a golden opportunity halfway through the first period as Olic somehow missed from about a yard out, completely unmarked in front of goal.
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Barcelona beat Stuttgart 4 – 0 to cruise into the Champions League last eight with Lionel Messi scoring two magic goals.
Messi struck a brilliant opener after just 12 minutes to put Barca 2-1 ahead in the last-16 tie, and he played a key role soon after as Pedro Rodriguez made it 2-0 on the night in the Nou Camp.
Messi, who was a constant menace, added a third on the hour mark to take his tally to eight goals in the last four games before Bojan Krkic completed the romp late on as Barca became Spain’s only representative to make it into the last eight.
Real Madrid, whose Bernabeu stadium will stage this year’s final, and Sevilla were both dumped out in the last week while Atletico Madrid bade farewell to the competition in the group stages.
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