The Tipster: Wily Inter Milan can put the brakes on Barcelona’s Champions League charge | Football

Barcelona celebrated an enormous victory against Real Madrid to lift the Copa del Rey on the weekend (Picture: Reuters)

Barcelona are a football club that oozes class, heading for a twenty eighth LaLiga title they’ve just beaten rivals Real Madrid to win the Copa del Rey for a thirty second time and so they are bidding to lift a sixth European Cup.

The bookies have them chalked up as overwhelming Champions League favourites at a best price of two/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral, William Hill and lots of more outlets and it’ll take something special to stop them lifting the trophy in Munich.

Unfortunately for the Catalan club there’s one other class act standing of their way within the semi-finals in the shape of Inter Milan, who also boast a wealthy history having won 20 Serie A titles and are within the running for an extra success, with three European Cups to their credit and a detailed call against Manchester City in the ultimate a few years ago.

It’s a clash of cultures with Barca scoring goals for fun, averaging three a game within the jewel of European football’s crown and Inter shutting up shop with a rock-solid defence which loves a clean sheet.

Inter have kept eight clean sheets on this season’s tournament, conceding just five goals, so Barca are going to have their work cut out to breach probably the most disciplined of rearguards.

Inter have an older squad than their hosts but that have is the important thing to their remarkable achievements and last term’s Italian champions are within the mood for further glory.

Against the percentages, they won 2-1 in the primary leg of their quarter-final tussle against Bayern Munich in Germany before drawing 2-2 on the San Siro and so they can silence the Olympic Stadium although they’ve lost their three domestic games since then without scoring a goal.

Inter Milan v Bayern Munich - UEFA Champions League
Inter Milan were at their best after they eliminated Bayern Munich within the Champions League quarter-finals (Picture: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Inter can raise their game and pull off one other superb result before completing the job on home soil to face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain within the glittering climax to the 2024/25 season.

The draw is 10/3 with bet365, Bet Victor and BetGoodwin, 1-1 is 15/2 with Betfred and StarSports and under 2.5 goals is 7/5 with Paddy Power. 

Meanwhile, Raphina is 9/5 with Paddy Power and Betfair to attain for Barca and Lautaro Martinez is 14/5 with Unibet and BetMGM to accomplish that for Inter.

• Mirra Andreeva is a rising star in tennis and she will write one other impressive entry in her CV by beating Coco Gauff on the Madrid Open at 4/5 with SpreadEx and Sporting Index.

• Scottie Scheffler still hasn’t won a title in eight attempts because the turn of the yr but should finally prevail at 14/5 with Betfred at this week’s CJ Byron Nelson having finished tied-second, fourth and tied-eighth against stronger fields in his last three appearances.

Taylor Pendrith is 22/1 with Ladbrokes and Coral and our other each-ways are Stephan Jaeger at 30/1 and Jake Knapp 35/1 each with the identical firms.