Lamine Yamal insists that Barcelona head into the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final against Inter with “excitement”, but also with the knowledge that their Italian opponents will “give everything” to reach next month’s final at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
It’s been an exciting week for the Blaugrana. A hard-fought 1-0 victory over Mallorca in mid-week kept them on course for the LaLiga title, before a thrilling two-hour contest at La Cartuja saw Hansi Flick’s side triumph over Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. Barça remain on course for a historic quadruple as a result.
Speaking in a pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday’s first leg against Inter, Yamal said: “The atmosphere we experienced at the Copa del Rey final was fantastic. It was about going out and enjoying ourselves. I’d love to experience that again.”
With 12 members of Barça’s first team squad having risen through the club’s famed La Masia academy, Yamal suggested that their deep-rooted understand of the club can help provide extra motivation when it is needed in big games.
Every La Masia graduate wants to see Barcelona win, he explained, adding that “we give everything because we feel this shirt, because we’ve grown up here and we know what it means. I think that plays a huge role.”
Barça are considered by many bookmakers to be the favourites to lift the Champions League in Munich next month, but Yamal refused to get ahead of himself and instead highlighted the quality of the Internazionale side they must see off in order to reach that showpiece final.
“Everyone knows that Inter are a very strong team and that they’re very good defensively. They’re great in attack too,” he continued, “because when they regain the ball, they counter-attack really well. But we’re also good on the ball, and we’ll have to give everything to do what we normally do to get a great result.”
“This is a Champions League semi-final and we’re all playing to reach the final, so they’ll give everything, just like us,” the 17-year-old explained on Tuesday, noting that there is an additional “excitement” around the Blaugrana squad because “for a lot of us, this would be our first Champions League final.”
Barcelona v Inter gets underway at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys at 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST] on Wednesday 30 April.