Frenkie de Jong thinks that Barcelona is about to achieve something special while they hunt a treble.
Barca, who are clear four points at the top of Laliga and defeated Real Madrid to win the Copa del Rey last weekend, fought back twice to pull 3-3 with Inter in an exciting Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday.
Wonderkid Lamine Yamal was the star of the show at the age of 100, which he marked with a wonderful goal halfway through the first half, releasing the way for the Blaugrana to come back from 2-0.
This season Raphinha recorded his 20th Champions League target when he shot up the equalizer of Ferran Torres. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (21 in 2013-14) played a role in more goals in one season in the history of the competition.
And although Denzel Dumfries scored his second of the game to put Inter in the second half, Barca recovered the parity within two minutes when Raphinha's strike clattered and in the back of Yann Sommer.
While De Jong anticipates a strict test in San Siro in the second stage, he is convinced that the Hansi Flick team is able to claim several trophies the following month.
“Yes, this team is very good, we have a lot of energy, we play good games,” he said TNT Sports.
“We think we have the team to do something special. Hopefully we can prove that in the coming weeks. We will go for it.”
This was the joint highest score that was in a semi-final match of Champions League in addition to a 3-3 draw between Dynamo Kyiv and Bayern Munich in the first stage in 1998-99.
In what their 300th Champions League match was, Barca did not win at home, despite the score of three or more goals for only a third time in the competition, and also did this against Manchester United in November 1998 and Inter in October 2022 (all three finishes 3-3).
“It was a fun game to play, it is always in the Champions League, maybe the semi -final even more. Both teams played their hearts,” said De Jong.
“We knew it would be difficult. Inter is a very good team – it was a bad start to us. We have a lot of faith in our capacities, and we knew we could do that [come back]. “
Barca ended with 71.5% possession and had 19 shots, in which 1.39 expected goals were collected, although their high line had exposed them to the back, and only a marginal offside decision denied Henrikh Mkheticyan a potential winner for Inter Laat.
However, De Jong sees no reason for Barca to change how they play.
“It's fun [to play with risk]We want to dominate, score goals, “he said.” Of course we take some risks, but we get a lot of reward from this. We keep playing like this, hopefully we will reach the final. “
De Jong led the road for touches (112), tried (103) and accurate passes (100), while also creating a team -high three opportunities.
However, Dutch International warned that his performance should not be fully assessed on statistics.
He said: “I feel good right now. I don't think it's one of my best games, I think I have much more to offer.
“Statistics don't always tell you the story – it wasn't a bad game, but I played better games. I feel good right now and look forward to the games that come.”