Lautaro Martinez forced to withdraw from Barcelona-Inter semi-final – Football Italia

nter captain and starting centre-forward Lautaro Martinez was forced out of the Champions League semi-final first leg between Barcelona and Inter on Wednesday night after picking up an apparent thigh injury shortly before the half-time whistle. 

You can follow the action from Barcelona-Inter on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Lautaro Martinez withdraws from Barcelona-Inter semi at half-time

The first leg of the Champions League semi-final was full to the brim with first-half incidents. First, there were concerns over Lamine Yamal’s availability as he required treatment minutes before kick-off at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. 

Then came the opening goal from the returning Marcus Thuram after just 30 seconds of action. Another injury returnee in Denzel Dumfries doubled the Nerazzurri advantage 21 minutes in with an overhead kick, before a wonderful strike from Yamal for 2-1 and a first-half equaliser from Ferran Torres. 

Despite their early two-goal lead, Inter were under the cosh from a relentless Barcelona attack for much of the opening 45 minutes, and the situation only worsened when Lautaro appeared to be struggling before the end of the first half. 

The Argentina international appeared to clutch his the back of his thigh immediately after attempting to chop past Dani Olmo on an Inter counter attack. 

Lautaro had his head in his hands before the end of the first-half as the emotions got the better of him, but he was able to continue until half-time, a few minutes after he felt his hamstring go. 

Mehdi Taremi came on to replace Lautaro Martinez at the beginning of the second half.

Barcelona, meanwhile, had to bring on Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia to replace defenders Joules Kounde and Gerard Martin before the start of the second half.