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Published : 06 May 2025, 02:56 AM
Inter Milan's Alessandro Bastoni has called on his team to pull out all the stops in their bid to contain Barcelona's Lamine Yamal in the Champions League semi-final second leg at San Siro on Tuesday.
The prodigious 17-year-old Yamal wowed the crowd at Montjuic with a sublime goal and a bold performance, helping Barcelona twice fight back to secure a gripping 3-3 draw in the first leg.
Bastoni, the 25-year-old centre back, who faced Yamal during last year's European Championship where Spain beat Italy 1-0, expressed admiration for the teenager's rapid progression.
"I had already faced him with Spain and he was not yet at this level," Bastoni told a press conference on Monday.
"I was impressed by the level he reached, for his age and ability to create incredible things on the pitch, I think he is among the best in the world right now.
"We'll have to double, maybe triple (mark) him like we did at times in the first leg, but without exaggerating, otherwise we would create too many spaces. Barcelona is not just Yamal."
The electrifying first leg, filled with early drama, late chaos and Yamal's history-making feats, has set the stage for what Bastoni likened to "game seven of the NBA finals".
"It's 50-50, all open, and I think it will be a similar game from the first-leg so I'm glad that we will play in front of our fans," Bastoni said.
"I can only be proud of how far we have come. We are two games away from winning the Champions League, it is our goal, we really want to make a good impression, to make the people who follow us happy.
"We are sure that our fans will give us a big hand at the San Siro, we live for moments like this."
PAVARD, MARTINEZ DOUBTFUL
Inter manager Simone Inzaghi agreed with Bastoni, stating that their defensive strategy would primarily focus on neutralising Yamal.
"(Defending Yamal) is very difficult, we'll have to try not to let him get the ball, but that's impossible in modern football," Inzaghi said.
"He'll be closely marked, he'll be double-marked, and we'll try to be careful. However, as I said in the first leg, having seen him live, he's a huge talent: at his age, he's really dangerous.
"In difficult moments, they hand him the ball, and I was impressed by his quick thinking. When he receives the ball, he already knows what to do next."
Inzaghi revealed that the availability of injured defender Benjamin Pavard and captain Lautaro Martinez remained uncertain.
"We will decide on Lautaro (Martinez) and Pavard together with the medical staff and the players, they will have to tell me how they feel," Inzaghi said.
"On Sunday, Pavard participated in the first part of training and felt okay. Lautaro hasn't trained since Barcelona, so we'll see today how it goes."
