FC Barcelona vs. Inter: What happened in 2010, the last time these teams played in Champions League semifinals

On Wednesday FC Barcelona will host Inter in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal matchup at the Estadio Olimpico Lluis Companys, while the second leg will take place next week, on May 6 at San Siro (As always, you can catch all the Champions League action across Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network and CBS Sports Network).  These two sides have met multiple times over the last few years, with the last time being in the group stage of the 2022-23 edition, when the side coached by Simone Inzaghi were able to knock out Xavi’s team from a group with Bayern Munich and Viktoria Plzen, before reaching the final and losing to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Guardiola was actually the Barcelona manager when Inter and the Spanish giants met for the last time in the Champions League semifinals, during the iconic 2009-10 season, when Jose Mourinho’s Inter won a treble, or Triplete as they say in Italy, where they won Serie A, the Coppa Italia and most notably their third Champions League trophy, the first one in 45 years. 

Barcelona were having an incredible season. Pep Guardiola had already won a treble in his first season at the club as head coach when during the 2008-09 season, FC Barcelona won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League final in Rome, thanks to the goals of Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi. One year later, they had the unprecedented chance to repeat themselves, and also winning the European trophy in the stadium of their historic rivals, at the Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. To make it happen, they only needed to eliminate Inter and Jose Mourinho to reach the final. 

That Champions League semifinal matchup was legendary, as the two sides met in Milan for the first leg and Inter won 3-1 thanks to the goals of Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito after the opening goal of Pedro, while the second leg took place at the Camp Nou in Barcelona on April 28, 2010 and was one of the most iconic soccer games of the past decades. But the rivalry between the two teams, and most notably between their managers, started way before that game. 

The summer 2009

The 2009 summer transfer window saw one of the most unexpected swap deals becoming reality. Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic started to show his unhappiness at Inter before the end of the 2008-09 season, when Inter won the Italian Serie A in the first year of Jose Mourinho, but were knocked out by Manchester United in the Round of 16 of the Champions League, showing they needed to do some more work to win outside of their country. The agent of Ibrahimovic, Mino Raiola, started to talk with other clubs about a possible exit in the summer, as his player wanted to win the Champions League as well, and FC Barcelona were looking to sign a striker. This is where Barcelona president Joan Laporta and Inter former owner Massimo Moratti agreed a deal for Ibrahimovic to join the side coached by Guardiola, in exchange of around $50 million and the free transfer of Samuel Eto’o, for a total value of $70 million. Inter were also interested in signing Barcelona midfielder Aljaksandr Hleb, but as the parties couldn’t agree to a deal, Inter decided to change their target and signed Wesley Sneijder, an integral piece in the treble winning side, from Real Madrid few weeks later. 

Mourinho vs. Guardiola

The rivalry between the two managers started during the 2009-10 season, but that was not the first time their paths had crossed. They worked together before, as Mourinho was on the Barcelona staff under both Bobby Robson and Luis van Gaal, and Pep Guardiola was a player who worked also with the Portuguese assistant during the last 1990’s. When FC Barcelona started his managerial career in 2008, Mourinho embraced the opposite of his tactical ideas and mentality. The rivalry heated up during the 2009-10 season, as Mourinho insisted that while for Inter winning the Champions League was just a dream, for FC Barcelona and Guardiola it was an obsession. The 2010 season showed what was probably the best version of the Portuguese coach on and off the pitch, as he was able to find the right keys to make their opponents look weaker. Things escalated dramatically when Mourinho became the Real Madrid manager at the end of the 2009-10 season, as he was the face of the rivalry between the two teams for the upcoming years, but at the end he was not able to repeat what he did at Inter. 

Why Barcelona couldn’t fly to Milan in 2010

On Monday April 28 2025 Spain is experiencing a massive power outage affecting the country including the cities of Madrid and Barcelona. The blackout caused disruptions, including issues for the airports and the transportations in general.  With Inter due to fly to Spain on Tuesday, this brings up echoes of something similar that happened in 2010 when the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland created a massive ash cloud that disrupted air travel across Europe, grounding flights due to the risk of volcanic ash damaging aircraft engines. The side coached by Guardiola were unable to fly to Milan for the first leg and Barcelona’s team was forced to travel approximately 1,000 kilometers by bus from Barcelona to Milan, a journey that took about 14 hours over two days with an overnight stop in Cannes, France.

What happened in the second leg? 

One week after Inter were able to win 3-1 the first leg in Milan, Inter traveled to Barcelona with the hopes to make it to the final, despite the whole city and stadium claimed for a remontada, a comeback. 

Even before the game started, the atmosphere was absolutely incredible as Jose Mourinho entered the pitch before his team in the pre-match training at the center, with the whole stadium whistling him. Mourinho wanted to concentrate all the tifo against him, so that the team could focus on the game itself, but the atmosphere at the Camp Nou was epic. From the first minute of the second leg’s semifinal, FC Barcelona pushed Inter into their own box, trying to score the opening goal of the game. Things got even better for the home side when Thiago Motta received his second yellow of the match, resulting in a red card ejection, after a foul on Sergio Busquets after 28 minutes in the first half. A few moments later, Mourinho said something in the ear of Guardiola while he was speaking with Ibrahimovic, putting more pressure on them. Years later, the Portuguese manager revealed he said, “Don’t celebrate, it’s not over”. He was right. 

It seemed impossible for Barcelona to score that night. Mourinho’s team showed they could resist more and the home side scored their first and only goal of the night at minute 84, through center back Gerard Pique. Barcelona’s Bojan Krkic had a second goal but it was disallowed for a handball from Yaya Toure. Inter resisted until the last second, playing in full defensive mode as the strikers, especially former Barcelona forward Eto’o, played on the defensive line as well. At the final whistle, Mourinho ran with one finger pointing at the sky towards the away stand, while most of the players collapsed crying on the field. Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes tried to stop Mourinho celebrating, hinting at the rivalry that was about to explode in the years coming, while Barcelona opened the buried hydrants at the Camp Nou to avoid the celebrations of the away team. Jose Mourinho, in the post-match interview, said: “This is best day of my life, better than my first title, better than the Champions League won with Porto, for the fans, for my team. The best day ever.”

Who played the second leg

FC Barcelona XI: Victor Valdes; Gerard Pique, Gabriel Milito, Yaya Toure; Dani Alves, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Keita; Pedro, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi.

Inter XI: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Lucio, Walter Samuel, Javier Zanetti; Esteban Cambiasso, Thiago Motta, Dejan Stankovic, Christian Chivu, Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito.