Marcus Thuram To Step Up As Inter Milan Try To Save Season With Champions League

Marcus Thuram will lead Inter Milan's bid to make a second Champions League final in three seasons by beating Barcelona and keeping alive their trophy hopes from a season which promised so much but could yet deliver nothing. Inter head into their second-leg showdown at the San Siro level following last week's six-goal thriller which leaves the last-four tie finely balanced and suggested the Italian champions have a chance of getting past the flamboyant La Liga leaders. France forward Thuram will be the focal point of Inter's attack on Tuesday night, as he was when he made a spectacular return from injury in Catalonia with an early backheeled opener.

Barcelona had to bring on some of their big guns to beat already-relegated Real Valladolid on Saturday while Inter coach Simone Inzaghi managed to rest his entire first XI in a low-key 1-0 win over Verona.

Inzaghi's assistant Massimiliano Farris said that the first leg efforts "squeezed dry" Inter's first choice players, who will have to put in another huge shift to get past Barca.

Saturday's win at a subdued San Siro kept alive Inter's hopes of retaining the Serie A title but with three matches remaining in Italy and Napoli leading the division by three points the Champions League is now their best hope for a trophy.

That would have seemed ridiculous in the aftermath of Inter's enthralling quarter-final victory over Bayern Munich, which increased hopes of a Serie A, Italian Cup and Champions League treble.

But without Thuram an exhausted-looking Inter lost their following three domestic fixtures without scoring a goal, going from three points ahead of Napoli at the top to Serie A to three points behind and suffering a miserable cup elimination at the hands of AC Milan.

Doin