Before the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal between Barcelona and Inter Milan, few other than hardcore Serie A followers would have heard the name of Davide Frattesi. After the dust settled in Inter’s incredible 4-3 win against Barca which ensured they reach the final, no one will forget his name in a hurry.
With the score 3-3 at regulation time, the match headed to Extra Time and up stepped Frattesi, a 25 year old Italian midfielder who thumped home the winner in the 99th minute to crush Barcelona’s dreams of qualifying to the final in Munich.
“I don’t know what happened tonight. I’m lucky I managed to finish the game, I screamed so much (in celebration) that I saw everything black,” Frattesi told Italian broadcaster Sky.
“That’s part of my career. I wasn’t given so much incredible talent, but I am always the last one to give up and the first one to believe we can do it. At 3-3, I told Marcus (Thuram) that we would go through,” he added.
Frattesi made his professional debut with Sassuolo in 2017 before he was loaned to Ascoli in 2018 before getting loaned out to Empoli in 2019. In 2020 he was loaned out again, this time to Monza before another loan to Inter Milan. In 2024, he signed permanently with the Nerazzurri and helped them secure a 2-1 win against Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals where he scored his first goal in the competition.
He has played 132 matches in the Serie A and scored 22 goals and provided 10 assists and has played 28 matches in the Champions League notching up 3 goals and 3 assists.
In the match, there was little sign at halftime of the drama to play out. Inter was comfortably leading 2-0 after Lautaro Martínez scored and earned a penalty, which was converted by Hakan Çalhanoglu.
But Barcelona had been in that position before, having gone 2-0 down early last week in the first leg before securing a thrilling 3-3 draw.
And Eric García scored nine minutes after the break before Dani Olmo headed in the equalizer six minutes later.
Raphina appeared to have secured the win for Barcelona when he put the Spanish club ahead two minutes before full time, tucking away the rebound after Yann Sommer had saved his initial shot.
However, 37-year-old Francesco Acerbi astonishingly leveled in stoppage time — with his first goal in European competition — to add another 30 minutes of time.
Frattesi had proved crucial off the substitutes’ bench before, both for Italy and Inter, and so he was again, controlling Mehdi Taremi’s pass and beating Pau Cubarsí before curling past Wojciech Szczesny.
(With agency inputs)
