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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nFrenkie de Jong thinks Barcelona are on the verge of achieving something special as they hunt down a treble.<\/p>\n
Barca, who are four points clear at the top of LaLiga and beat Real Madrid to win the Copa del Rey last weekend, fought back twice to draw 3-3 with Inter in a thrilling Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Wonderkid Lamine Yamal was the star of the show on his 100th Barca appearance, which he marked with a magnificent goal midway through the first half, paving the way for the Blaugrana to come back from 2-0 down early on.<\/p>\n
Raphinha registered his 20th Champions League goal contribution this season when he teed up Ferran Torres\u2019 equaliser. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (21 in 2013-14) has played a part in more goals in a single season in the competition\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
And though Denzel Dumfries netted his second of the game to put Inter ahead in the second half, Barca restored parity within two minutes when Raphinha\u2019s strike clattered down off the crossbar and in off Yann Sommer\u2019s back.<\/p>\n
While De Jong anticipates a stern test at San Siro in the second leg, he is confident Hansi Flick\u2019s team are capable of claiming multiple trophies in the next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, this team is very good, we have a lot of energy, we\u2019re playing good games,\u201d he told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel we have the team to do something special. Hopefully, we can prove that in the coming weeks. We will go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the joint-highest score draw in a Champions League semi-final game alongside a 3-3 draw between Dynamo Kyiv and Bayern Munich in the first leg back in 1998-99.<\/p>\n
In what was their 300th Champions League game, Barca failed to win at home despite scoring three or more goals for just a third time in the competition, also doing so against Manchester United in November 1998 and Inter in October 2022 (all three finishing 3-3).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice game to play, it always is in the Champions League, maybe the semi-finals even more. Both teams played their heart out,\u201d said De Jong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it was going to be hard. Inter are a very good team \u2013 it was a bad start from us. We have a lot of confidence in our abilities, and we knew we could [come back].\u201d<\/p>\n
Barca finished with 71.5% possession and had 19 shots, accumulating 1.39 expected goals, though their high line did leave them exposed at the back, and only a marginal offside decision denied Henrikh Mkhitaryan a potential winner for Inter late on.<\/p>\n
De Jong, though, sees no reason for Barca to change how they play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice [to play with risk], we want to dominate, to score goals,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, we take some risks, but we get a lot of reward from this. We\u2019ll keep playing like this, hopefully we get to the final.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Jong led the way for touches (112), passes attempted (103) and accurate passes (100), while also creating a team-high three chances.<\/p>\n
However, the Netherlands international warned his performance should not be fully judged on statistics.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI feel good at the moment. I don\u2019t think it was one of my best games, I think I have a lot more to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cStats don\u2019t always tell you the story \u2013 it wasn\u2019t a bad game, but I\u2019ve played better games. I feel good at the moment, and looking forward to the games coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Frenkie de Jong thinks Barcelona are on the verge of achieving something special as they hunt down a treble. Barca, who are four points clear at the top of LaLiga and beat Real Madrid to win the Copa del Rey last weekend, fought back twice to draw 3-3 with Inter in a thrilling Champions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28001,2005,143581],"tags":[44562,143580],"class_list":{"0":"post-844988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barca","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-treble-hunting","10":"tag-barca","11":"tag-treble-hunting"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}