MADRID (AP) — It was a heartbreaking elimination for Barcelona, having come minutes away from returning to the Champions League final for the first time in a decade.
The disappointment was significant, considering how close it got to advancing and how well the team had been playing led by teenage sensation Lamine Yamal.
Still, Barcelona found a way to focus on the positives following the 4-3 extra-time loss at Inter Milan in the semifinals of the Champions League on Tuesday, and the 17-year-old Yamal was making promises to bring the European trophy to the club.
“We gave everything we had, but this year it wasn’t meant to be,” Yamal said on a social media post. “We will be back, there is no doubt about that. We won’t stop until we put this club where it deserves, which is at the very top. I will fulfil my promise of bringing it to Barcelona. We won’t stop until we do it.”
Barcelona recovered from a 2-0 halftime deficit on Tuesday to take the lead in the 87th minute before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer that forced extra time and led to Inter’s victory.
“I am disappointed but not about the team’s performance. They did everything they could and did a really good job. We are out but we will try again next season. We will try to make the fans and the club proud,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “We will learn from this, progress. We want to continue learning and next season we will be back.”
Barcelona has taken a huge leap forward in its first season under Flick, reaching the Champions League semifinals for the first time since 2019. It also leads the Spanish league, where it has a four-point advantage over Real Madrid ahead of the rivals’ last “clasico” of the season on Sunday in Barcelona.
The Catalan club has been dominant against Madrid this season, outscoring its rival 12-4 in three matches. Barcelona beat Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final in January and 3-2 in the Copa del Rey final last month. It also won 4-0 at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in their first league match of the season in October.
“We have another final on Sunday and we have to stick together,” Yamal said.
A lot of the club’s optimism going forward stems from the amount of young talent in the squad. In addition to Yamal, Barcelona also has the likes of Ansu Fati, Pedri, Gavi, Pau Cubarsí, Fermín López, Héctor Fort, Marc Casadó, Alejandro Balde, Pablo Torre and Marc Bernal. The oldest in that list — at 22 — are Pedri, Torre and Fati.
“We are a young side and we have to mature. We are working on it and we have to improve in defense and in other aspects,” Flick said. “We will continue to fight this season and the next. This game is over and now we have to pick ourselves up and look ahead as we have the clasico coming up. I will wake the team up.”
A loss on Sunday would bring Madrid back in the title race with three matches left. Madrid, the defending European champion, was eliminated by Arsenal in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Barcelona last played in a Champions League final in 2015, when a team led by Lionel Messi won the club’s fifth European trophy.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
