The Top Talking Points From Europe's Semi Finals

Inter vs Barcelona

Having provided us with an all-timer first leg in Spain last week, Inter and Barcelona somehow outdid themselves and offered up the highest-scoring Champions League semi-final tie of all time.

It was an evening that ebbed and flowed beautifully, with San Siro playing host as a cauldron of emotion for both sets of fans. Inter's two-goal first-half lead was cancelled out by a quickfire double from La Masia graduate Eric Garcia and summer signing Dani Olmo.

Raphinha's strike three minutes from full-time looked to have edged it for Hansi Flick's side, but Francesco Acerbi, the oldest player on the pitch, drew the Nerazzurri level in injury time.

🇮🇹👏 Simone Inzaghi has guided Inter to the UEFA Champions League final 2 times in 3 seasons...

✅ 2022/23
✅ 2024/25

Since joining Inter back in 2021, he has also won 6 trophies with them. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/eJVWPDtDti

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) May 10, 2025

Davide Frattesi’s winner was worthy of firing Inter into the final — football’s painfully harsh small margins leaving both sides with the sense that they had done enough.

As The Athletic's data analyst Mark Carey often puts it, “styles make fights” — and this was a bout defined by contrast. Inter’s compact 3-5-2 invited pressure before launching into deadly transition moments. Barcelona, meanwhile, controlled the ball but found themselves exposed time and again on the break. Flick’s high line allowed Inter to isolate wingbacks and slice through gaps with direct verticality — the kind of calculated chaos Simone Inzaghi has turned into an art form. In the end, control didn’t beat chaos.

This contrast is best illustrated by the numbers: across 120 minutes, Inter managed just one passing sequence of nine passes or more. Barcelona had twenty-seven.

PSG vs Arsenal

It's rare that one statistic can paint a clear image of where a game was decided. Across both legs, Mikel Arteta's Arsenal produced 4.54 expected goals (xG). They only scored once.

In contrast, PSG found the net three times from 2.9 xG — a significant overperformance.

There are two ways to interpret this.

On one hand, Arsenal were incredibly unlucky. Gianluigi Donnarumma was nothing short of world class across the two legs — his reflexes, positioning, and sheer limb-size repeatedly denied the Gunners, especially during their opening ten minute blitz in Paris. Arsenal managed seven shots in the opening 30 minutes alone at the Parc des Princes - all without reward - only to fall behind moments later to Fabian Ruiz’s 0.04 xG effort.

PSG's have gone from strength to strength throughout their Champions League campaign 🥶📈🏆 pic.twitter.com/1914qk74GC

— OneFootball (@OneFootball) May 8, 2025

Alternatively, Arsenal’s statistical supremacy can be explained through the lens of ‘gamestate’. After Ousmane Dembele’s early goal at the Emirates in the first leg, Arteta’s side spent 176 of 180 minutes chasing the tie. That shaped the tempo - Arsenal were chasing the game, with PSG more measured than we have seen them in Europe up to this point. Luis Enrique’s team slowed things down and chose their moments carefully, never overcommitting.

Despite being close friends, Arteta and Enrique viewed the tie very differently. The Arsenal boss felt his team were the better side and deeply unfortunate. “I don’t agree at all,” Enrique replied with a grin. “Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all.”

Football’s subjectivity is one of its most enduring charms, and rarely is it laid as bare as this: two elite coaches, two vastly different interpretations of the same 180 minutes.

One thing they would both agree on, though, is that if Arsenal had a clinical centre forward, they would no doubt have fared better against the Parisians.

An All-English Final

If there was any doubt that the Premier League is the strongest league in the world, the fact that 15th will play 16th in Europe’s secondary competition is surely proof enough.

Athletic Club - who are chasing Champions League qualification in La Liga - were made to look pedestrian by Manchester United across both legs. The early red card in the first leg helped Ruben Amorim’s men, but it was United’s control, organisation, and cutting edge that turned the tie into a formality.

Amorim’s fingerprints were all over United’s performance. Mount’s brace in the second leg capped a clinical and composed display. United generated 4.3 xG across the tie while limiting Athletic to 1.9, a mark of their complete dominance.

Only Tottenham Hotspur now stand between them and a return to the Champions League.

Spurs, for their part, looked equally assured in seeing off Bodø/Glimt — despite all the pre-match noise about plastic pitches and sub-zero temperatures. Postecoglou had braced for a tricky test in the Arctic Circle, but his side were professional, tidy, and ruthless.

They allowed just five shots across 90 minutes in Norway and struck through Solanke and Porro, easing to a 5–1 aggregate victory. It was a performance defined by control, not chaos - something that has rarely been said about Postecoglou’s Spurs in recent months.

Both teams will see the final as 'must-win' - United for the financial prospects the Champions League offers, and Postecoglou for the sake of his job and ending a seventeen year trophy droubt.

Either way, it’s a silver-lining scenario for two sides in desperate need of one.

Conference League Intrigue

It’s slightly surprising that this season’s Europa Conference League final looks set to be higher quality than the Europa League's closing fixture.

Both Real Betis and Chelsea are pushing for top-four finishes in their respective leagues and bring with them squads packed with experience, depth and youthful energy.

Betis edged Fiorentina in a breathless semi-final that needed extra time. Despite scoring first through Antony, they were pegged back by a Robin Gosens double that made it 3–3 on aggregate. Just seven minutes into extra time, Abdessamad Ezzalzouli fired El Glorioso into the final — sending the Benito Villamarín into rapture.

If Manchester United and Real Betis win their respective finals, Antony will become the first ever double European champion in the same season. 🤯🏆 pic.twitter.com/cBhkzx1Syu

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) May 9, 2025

Chelsea, meanwhile, avoided any late drama. Having done the hard work with a 4–1 away win at Djurgårdens in the first leg, Enzo Maresca’s men completed the job with a composed 2–0 win at Stamford Bridge. Goals from Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer wrapped up a 6–1 aggregate victory.

The Blues will go into the final as favourites, but Betis are well-drilled, tactically versatile, and carry a genuine attacking threat. Regardless of the result, the campaign has been a valuable proving ground for Chelsea’s young core — one that may shape the direction of their rebuild under Maresca more than any domestic performance.