Barcelona’s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal has been told he continues to be only the ‘third-best player on this planet’ despite his Champions League heroics against Inter Milan.
Yamal, 17, helped keep Barca of their semi-final tie against Inter with a quite good performance on the Montjuic Olympic Stadium.
Barcelona appeared to have a mountain to climb when Inter Milan went 2-0 up inside 22 minutes, Marcus Thuram scoring the fastest goal in a Champions League semi-final and Denzel Dumfries doubling the visitors’ result in silence the house crowd.
But Yamal got Barcelona back into the competition with a quite good strike, making his a centesimal appearance for the club with a twenty second goal so as to add to his 33 assists.
Yamal also hit the woodwork twice in a stunning display that left many pundits and fans wondering whether the Euro 2024 winner was already the most effective player on this planet.
That debate was put to Inter’s French striker Thuram after the sport but he claimed two of his compatriots were at the next level.
‘I don’t think so,’ Thuram told Canal Plus when asked whether Yamal was already the most effective within the business.
‘The very best player on this planet is French, the second-best player on this planet can also be French. Possibly Lamine is the third best.’
Thuram went on to discover Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele because the two best players on the planet.
Despite Inter Milan taking an early 2-0 lead, Barcelona were level on the half-time interval because of Yamal’s stunning goal and a Ferran Torres tap in.
Dumfries scored from one other corner on the hour mark to revive Inter’s lead but Barcelona got here back once more and clinched a 3-3 draw through a Yann Sommer own goal.
The stalemate leaves the semi-final tie perfectly poised ahead of the return leg in Milan next week. The winner will face PSG or Arsenal within the 2025 Champions League final.
Assessing Yamal’s incredible performance against Inter, Ally McCoist said on TNT Sports: ‘I don’t think I even have seen a forty five minutes like that from one individual before in my life. It’s unbelievable.’
Inter Milan boss Simone Inzaghi, meanwhile, said: ‘Lamine is the sort of talent that comes along every 50 years, and to see him up close really impressed me.
‘He caused us huge problems because we were speculated to double up on him and it wasn’t enough.’
Barcelona manager Hansi Flick added: ‘He’s special, he’s a genius. In the large matches, he shows up.
‘If it only comes every 50 years like Simone said, I’m glad it’s for Barcelona.’
Given the extraordinary begin to Yamal’s Barcelona profession and his form of play, the teenager has naturally been in comparison with Lionel Messi, one in every of the best players of all time.
Asked about those comparisons before Barca’s Champions League semi-final, Yamal said: ‘I don’t compare myself to him, because I don’t compare myself to anyone – and far less with Messi.
‘I don’t think the comparison is smart, with Messi even less – I’m going to enjoy myself, and be myself.’
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