Champions League: Barcelona crash out to Mourinhos heroic Inter Milan

Barcelona 1 - 0 Inter Milan
(1-0) Pique 84'

What an anticlimax. All that build up. All that bravado. All that expectation. All disappointment. The fans fulfilled their obligation, cloaking the Camp Nou in blue and red, bombarding the Inter players with a wall of noise as they entered into the arena. Shame tonights gladiators were dressed in white. It was such a flat performance from Barcelona, you would never have imagined that they were the same team that won six trophies in such emphatic fashion last season. Looking back at the tie, Inter earned their passage to Madrid last week in the San Siro.

As fluent and expansive as they were in scoring three crucial goals against Barca last week, tonight was all about closing spaces and throwing bodies in the line of fire. They defended like lions. Some call it anti-football. I found it inspiring. And to think they played for an hour with ten men. Even Samuel Eto'o played his part, filling in at left back once Thiago Motta had been sent off. Walter Samuel and Lucio were immense. Emilio Cambiasso rolled back the years marking Leo Messi out of the match, ably assisted by Christian Chivu. Sneijder and Milito were tireless in tracking back. Whatever Mourinho says to his players, it bloody well works.

It was proper yo-yo stuff. Barca mounted attack after attack. At times it was incessant. But not once did Inter flinch. I lost count of the amount of clearing headers, last ditch tackles and vital blocks. It was a credit to their lungbusting effort that Barca never really looked like scoring during a one-way first half. Messi produced one moment of magic that had Julio Cesar fingertipping the ball round the post. But his strike partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic was utterly anonymous. Infact he was worse. A display so desparate, you began to wonder why on earth Guardiola parted with so much money AND Samuel Eto'o to land this guy. Talented he is. A man for the big occasion he is not. La Ligas very own Dimitar Berbatov.  

Xavi clearly missed having Andres Iniesta by his side. Seydou Keita and Yaya Toure have their qualities, but when it comes to creating they leave Xavi horribly isolated. Lionel Messi simply never got into his stride. The main talking point from the first half was Mottas sending off. Did he really deserve to see red? Let's say he probably would have stayed on had Sergio Busquets remained on his feet, but you play with fire when you raise your hands in an opponents face. His histrionics after though were unforgivable.

Unfortunately for Barca the red card only served to galvanise Inter. It made them doubly determined to leave Spain as Champions League finalists. The second half followed the same pattern as the first. 90% possession for Barca, hundreds of sideways passes and still no way through that wall of white. Bojan came on and almost immediately had a chance to reignite the tie, but he headed wide from a glorious position. Had that gone in, we may well be talking about a different result. Gerard Pique, who was by far Barcas best performer on the night, gave the home fans hope with a superbly taken goal with six minutes remaining. Bojan had the ball in the net at the death, it was correctly ruled out for a handball from Toure. Then  and we were treated to a 'Mourinho moment' as he raced onto the turf, arms aloft. Reminiscent of that touchline burst at Old Trafford in 2004. There will be no dream Bernabeu final for Barcelona. Bayern Munich v Inter Milan it will be.