Soccer Football - Champions League - Semi Final - First Leg - FC Barcelona v Inter Milan - Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, Barcelona, Spain - April 30, 2025 FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal in action with Inter Milan's Alessandro Bastoni REUTERS/Nacho Doce
BARCELONA (Reuters) -Barcelona boss Hansi Flick lavished praise on Lamine Yamal after he scored a brilliant goal to spearhead his side's recovery from a two-goal deficit in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Inter Milan in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.
Playing his 100th game at just 17 years and 291 days old, Yamal became the youngest player to score in a Champions League semi-final, eclipsing the record set by Kylian Mbappe, who was 18 when he achieved the feat in 2017.
The young Spain international's stunning individual goal breathed life back into the game for the Catalans after they fell 2-0 behind early in the first half. He went on to hit the woodwork twice and continually troubled the Inter defence in an impressive display.
"Lamine (Yamal) showed us the way with that incredible goal because it was crucial to score that goal after we were losing by two goals, he played really well," Barca manager Hansi Flick told Movistar Plus.
"We played with style and we tried to win. Lamine was a very important player for us... In the big games, as he has already shown, he always turns up."
Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi was also full of praise for Yamal, revealing he had to make several adjustments at halftime to try and contain the talented teenager.
"We had to be better on Lamine Yamal, but it's much easier to say that from outside. He is a player who impressed me and he created a lot of problems for us, mainly in the last 30 minutes of the first half," Inzaghi said.
"Barca are a team of fantastic players and to come here and play a game like this, against the most offensive and most beautiful team in the world must make us proud. We could also have won it but we were playing against a team that has a player who is difficult to mark, who created so many problems for us.
"He is a talent that is born every 50 years, I had never seen him live and today he impressed me."
(Reporting by Fernando KallasEditing by Toby Davis)
