Barcelona target European title hat-trick

NYON, Switzerland:

Barcelona are on course for a hat-trick of European titles after beating Trabzonspor 4-1 in the UEFA Youth League final yesterday.

It was won the day after Barcelona reached the Women's Champions League final and two days before the men's team host Inter Milan in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals.

Leading from the 11th minute, on the first of two precise left-foot strikes by Mali youth international Ibrahim Diarra, Barcelona were rarely tested to claim a record third European youth title. Trabzonspor got a deserved goal in the 88th.

No club has swept European titles at each level since the Youth League started in the 2013-14 season. Barcelona won the inaugural edition and also lifted the trophy in 2018.

Barcelona's youth system is so strong that first-team players Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi were still eligible for the under-19 team that plays in the UEFA Youth League.

MEN'S TEAM

The La Liga-leading men's team must get past Inter over two legs to earn a Champions League final on May 31 in Munich against Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal.

The women's team face Arsenal in their Champions League final on May 24 in Lisbon.

The free-flowing attack of Barcelona comes up against the rugged, smothering defence of Inter Milan

Go back to 2010 -- when Lamine Yamal was not even three years old and Lionel Messi was close to his prime -- and Camp Nou was the scene of one of the most memorable matches in Champions League history, between the same teams going head-to-head there again tomorrow.

DEFENSIVE MASTERCLASS

Protecting a 3-1 lead from the first leg, Inter -- coached at the time by Jose Mourinho -- delivered a defensive masterclass against Pep Guardiola's Barcelona to survive with 10 men for more than an hour and lose just 1-0 to progress to the title match.

Memories will come flooding back ahead of the rematch this week, especially with the two protagonists owning the same traits as 15 years ago.

Barcelona are back in the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since the 2018-19 season, on the back of by far the best attack in the new-look, 36-team league stage. With Yamal, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski up front, Barca scored 28 goals in eight games -- and have netted nine more goals in eliminating Benfica and Borussia Dortmund in the knockouts.

Then there's Inter, the Italian champions, who conceded just once in eight games in the first stage and held on grimly to oust Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

Inter won the 2010 final, against Bayern, for a third European Cup title so their run toward the final this season has echoes of that title-winning campaign.

- AP