Tensions boiled over in a wild UEFA Champions League quarterfinal second leg encounter between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich as the San Siro. With the German giants chasing an equaliser at the very end of a topsy-turvy encounter, frustrations caught up with their Croatian defender Josip Stanisic.
At the very end of injury time in the second half, Stanisic was trying to take a speedy throw-in, but ended up shoving a ballboy off his stool as he was prevented from restarting the game quickly.
The incident caused a brief scuffle between Stanisic and the Inter bench, with subbed-off Inter fullback Federico Dimarco cautioned with a yellow card for his response to the push. However, Stanisic got away with no punishment from the referee.
After the match, 25-year-old Stanisic apologised for his reaction. “Every team in the world, when they’re leading, plays for time at the end. It was a bit stupid of me to push him,” admitted the Croatian to German newspaper Abendzeitung. “At that moment, I was just angry.”
Bayern lost the quarterfinal tie 4-3 on aggregate to Simone Inzaghi’s Inter, with the Italian champions gunning for a second CL final appearance in three seasons.
Champions League semifinal fixtures set
On the night, Inter carried a 2-1 lead from their win at the Allianz Arena last week, but found themselves under the pump from the Bavarian giants early in the second leg.
Harry Kane scored after half-time with a fine finish past Yann Sommer to make it 2-2 on aggregate, but the goal sparked Inter into action. Lautaro Martinez quickly regained the lead for the Nerrazzuri from a corner that fell kindly, before former Bayern defender Benjamin Pavard gave Inter a two-goal cushion with a thumping header soon after.
Bayern pulled one goal back from a corner routine of their own, as Eric Dier looped a header over Sommer from a tight angle to make it 4-3 with close to 15 minutes of regulation time left to play. From that point, while Bayern threatened consistently, they couldn’t manufacture enough clear-cut chances to find the equaliser.
Inter held on to the lead to reach the semifinal, as they hunt an elusive treble. The Italian giants currently sit top in the Serie A by three points, and will play the second leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal against fierce city rivals AC Milan next week. Inter became the first Italian team to win the treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010, and are trying to repeat the trick under Inzaghi.
Inter will now face off against a commanding Barcelona team in the semifinals, with Hansi Flick’s team having eased past Borussia Dortmund in their own quarterfinal on an aggregate score of 5-3. A Serhou Guirassy hat-trick at the Signal Iduna Park wasn’t enough to overcome the 4-0 lead Barca carried over from the first leg at Camp Nou.
In the other semifinal, Paris Saint-Germain will face Arsenal after the English team’s impressive and thumping 5-1 aggregate victory over European champions Real Madrid.
