Barcelona 3-3 Inter Milan: Robert Lewandowski's dramatic late header keeps slim qualification hopes alive

Barcelona’s hopes of contesting the Champions League knockout stages hang by a thread after a 3-3 draw with Inter at Camp Nou. Barca came into this match well aware that only victory would do, given that they found themselves third in Group C, three points behind their opponents in second, after three games. With Inter triumphing 1-0 at San Siro last week, giving themselves an advantage on head-to-head, a win for the visitors would cut short Barca’s Champions League campaign.

Ad The match took on a familiar pattern from the start, Barca dominating the ball and trying to break down their opponents. Inter, meanwhile, tried to hit their hosts on the counter-attack and force them into mistakes in possession. Ballon d'OrMessi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Platini — previous winners of the Ballon d’Or11 HOURS AGO The visitors required a clearance off the line from Henrikh Mkhitaryan to deny Robert Lewandowski at a corner early on but, with a little over a quarter of an hour gone, they were left to wonder how they hadn’t gone ahead.

An inch-perfect free-kick delivery from Hakan Calhanoglu fell perfectly for Edin Dzeko, who thundered a shot onto the underside of the crossbar only for it to ricochet down onto the line and bounce away. Mkhitaryan and Ousmane Dembele forced saves from Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Andre Onana respectively before Inter went close once again. Nicolo Barella beat Gavi to a header in midfield and, suddenly, the Nerazzurri had a three-on-two which ended with Denzel Dumfries firing straight at Ter Stegen.