Robert Lewandowski keeps Barcelona alive in pulsating draw with Inter

Barcelona stepped back from the edge but they still stare into the abyss. A late, late goal from Robert Lewandowski, his second of the night, keeps them in the Champions league – but only just and quite probably not for long. Three-two down, Robin Gosens having seemingly slipped in the knife with just two minutes to go, they were in the 92nd minute when the Pole headed Barcelona level. Their fate is not in their own hands, but at least they are not finished. Not yet, anyway.

This was a wild night, with an even wilder finish. From 1-0 up to 2-1 down, from 2-2 and chasing the winner that would change everything, to 3-2 down and then 3-3, Barcelona were left breathing, if barely. Having seemingly lost it and then found a way back in, they almost lost it again, only for Marc-André ter Stegen to make an astonishing save right at the death. Had that gone in, and it should have done, they would have been knocked out of the Champions league with two games to go. Instead, they stumble on. They need to win their final two games and hope Inter do win either of theirs.

The place was packed and Barcelona were keen to get on with it, the fans whistling Inter goalkeeper André Onana for wasting time before he had had any time to waste. It was true though that on his return to the stadium where he once lived but never played, he wasn’t in the kind of hurry the home side were – and yet it was Inter who had the first chance, when Lautaro Martínez escaped on the left and struck a shot into the side-netting.

As it turned out, the flag was up but that was an early glimpse of the threat that Inter posed when they went long beyond the press and of Barcelona’s vulnerability to that out-ball. That risk was revealed again when from a Barcelona