Inter Milan reaches Champions League semifinals after eliminating Bayern Munich 4-3 on aggregate

Former Bayern Munich defender Benjamin Pavard scored against his old club to help Inter Milan to a 2-2 draw against the German team on Wednesday, sending the Nerazzurri through to the Champions League semifinals 4-3 on aggregate.

It was Pavard’s first goal for Inter, after the France international joined from Bayern in 2023.

“There’s certainly a lot of emotions as it’s my first goal, moreover it’s at San Siro,” said Pavard, who last scored almost exactly two years ago to the day. “So there were a lot of emotions but I had to stay in the match, I couldn’t think of the goal, I had to remain focused.”

Harry Kane had leveled the quarterfinal early in the second half but Inter swiftly turned the game around with goals from Lautaro Martínez and Pavard on a blustery night in Milan.

Eric Dier headed in the equalizer on the night, in the 76th minute, to set up a nervy finale.

Inter will face Barcelona in the semifinals. It beat the same opponent in the final four in 2010 on its way to winning the Champions League and securing the treble under José Mourinho

Simone Inzaghi’s men are in contention to repeat that feat this season.

“We’re not putting limits on ourselves,” Pavard told broadcaster Amazon Prime. “We have a great team, we have really great players, with staff that have been working well for two years.”

The other semifinal pits Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal, which won 2-1 at Real Madrid on Wednesday to advance 5-1 on aggregate.

Inter had stunned Bayern last week, winning 2-1 to inflict the German team’s first home defeat in the competition in almost four years.

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said he had “some regrets” over the two legs, with his team missing a number of chances and thus missing out on the possibility of lifting the Champions League trophy in its own stadium on May 31.

“The hard reality is that we’re not going to play the Champions League final at home,” Kompany said. “That’s the hard reality. We can’t change it. The other side is the performance side. We know we did enough to win these two games.”

It was a wet and windy night at San Siro and the gusts caused some misplaced passes.

The visitors had a few early opportunities, with Pavard charging down an effort by Michael Olise and Alessandro Bastoni timing a sliding tackle to perfection to also deny Olise, who had gone clear on goal.

Inter managed to slow things down after the frantic start and began to have opportunities of its own.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu went closest in the 33rd minute with one of his trademark shots from distance that flew just wide of the right upright.

There was panic in the Inter area moments later and Bayern’s first-leg goalscorer Thomas Müller had a shot charged down by Matteo Darmian and Leroy Sané saw the follow-up saved by Yann Sommer.

However, Bayern broke the deadlock — and leveled the quarterfinal — seven minutes into the second half.

Inter failed to properly clear a cross and the ball came out to Leon Goretzka, who fed Kane and the England forward steadied himself before firing past Federico Dimarco and into the far bottom corner.

But Inter equalized just seven minutes later. Lautaro — Inter’s all-time leading scorer in the competition — miscontrolled a corner but was quickest to react and managed to bundle it into the bottom left corner.

The Argentina World Cup winner leapt onto the advertising hoardings in front of the Inter fans and stretched out his arms.

There were even more rapturous celebrations three minutes later when Pavard headed in another corner.

The Inter fans were in for a nervy final 14 minutes, however, as Serge Gnabry’s cross found Dier at the byline, and his header strangely looped into the far top corner from the tightest of angles.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer