‘Talents like Lamine Yamal are born in 50 years’: Inter coach Inzaghi impressed with Barca’s teen star
After witnessing from the touchline how Yamal pushed his Inter lineup to the limit, Inzaghi said talents like the Barcelona teenager come around only once in half a century.
Barca's Lamine Yamal during UEFA UCL clash vs Inter Milan. (AP) Inter Milan’s coach, Simone Inzaghi, was all praise for Barcelona’s teen sensation Lamine Yamal after the UEFA Champions League Semi-final first-leg clash. After witnessing from the touchline how Yamal pushed his Inter lineup to the limit, Inzaghi said talents like the Barcelona teenager come around only once in half a century.
“He’s the kind of talent who is born every 50 years, I had never seen him live and he really impressed me today,” said Inzaghi after Barca and Inter played a hard-fought 3-3 draw on Wednesday. “Lamine Yamal caused us so many problems in the last 25 minutes of the first half,” he added.
Inter took a 2-0 lead over Barca in the first 21 minutes before Yamal pulled one back with a counterattacking goal in the 24th minute.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick described his 17-year-old player as “a genius” after Yamal put on his latest talent show in his 100th game for the club’s senior squad. “He’s special. I’ve said it before, but he’s a genius,” Flick said. “In the big matches, he shows up, and I think he enjoys the situation. I’m really happy that this talent, if it only comes every 50 years like Simone said, I’m glad it’s for Barcelona.”
Yamal romping where Messi once didYamal dismissed any comparison to Lionel Messi in his first press conference for his club a day before Inter came to town. But his performance recalled the best days of Messi as his teammates fed him passes and let him pick Inter apart from the right flank. Each time he had the ball he was either searching for a teammate in scoring position or dipping his head and dribbling past his marker.
That goal made Yamal — at 17 years, 291 days — the youngest scorer in a Champions League semifinal. He went so close to bettering that moments later when he glided past two defenders and sliced a shot from a sliver of an angle off the crossbar.“This guy is incredible,” Manchester City striker Erling Haaland posted on Snapchat with a screenshot of Yamal’s shot off the bar.
(with inputs from AP)
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