After watching from the touchline as Lamine Yamal pushed his Inter Milan facet to the restrict, Simone Inzaghi stated gamers just like the Barcelona teenager are a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
“He’s the type of talent born once every 50 years. I had never seen him play live, and he truly impressed me today,” the Inter coach stated after Yamal performed a pivotal function in Barcelona’s thrilling 3-3 draw Wednesday to kick off their Champions League semifinal sequence.
“Lamine Yamal caused us so many problems in the final 25 minutes of the first half,” Inzaghi added.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick additionally heaped reward on his 17-year-old star, calling him “a genius” after Yamal dazzled in his one hundredth look for the membership’s senior squad.
“He’s special. I’ve said it before, but he’s a genius,” Flick said. “In the large matches, he exhibits up, and I believe he loved the scenario. I’m actually joyful that this expertise, if it solely comes each 50 years like Simone stated, I’m glad it’s for Barcelona.”
Yamal dismissed any comparability to Lionel Messi in his first press convention for his membership a day earlier than Inter got here to city.
But his efficiency recalled the perfect days of Messi as his teammates fed him passes and let him decide Inter other than the precise flank.
Each time he had the ball, he was both trying to find a teammate in scoring place or dipping his head and dribbling previous his marker.
His aim was one for the YouTube compilations.
Inter had a 2-0 lead and the momentum from objectives by Marcus Thuram and Denzel Dumfries, and it appeared like they’d left Yamal with nowhere to go within the twenty fourth minute. But he slipped round one defender, sped previous a second, after which, placing the ball on his left foot, curled a shot previous the turning heads of a minimum of two extra Inter gamers. The ball smacked the far publish and was cradled within the web.
That aim made Yamal – at 17 years, 291 days – the youngest scorer in a Champions League semifinal.
He went so near bettering that moments later when he glided previous two defenders and sliced a shot from a sliver of an angle off the crossbar.
“This man is unimaginable,” Manchester City striker Erling Haaland posted on Snapchat with a screenshot of Yamal’s shot off the bar.
Yamal fed passes to Ferran Torres and Dani Olmo for back-to-back photographs that Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer saved earlier than Raphinha took over and headed a ball down for Torres to ram residence for 2-2 earlier than halftime.
Dumfries put Inter forward once more earlier than Raphinha ensured the draw with a long-range strike that discovered the online. But Yamal was disillusioned {that a} closing push for a winner got here up quick.
“The whole world can see what a good footballer he is. He’s a player who shines,” Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan said. “We tried to cease him, however that was so tough as a result of he’s obtained nice expertise. I hope we don’t let him play this a lot subsequent week.”
Yamal stated he appreciated the reward however simply needed to concentrate on the subsequent match with a European Cup simply two wins away.
“I am happy to have helped the team, and now we need to go for more,” he said. “We knew we might have gained the sport, however now we’re simply targeted on the second leg and going by.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com