FC Barcelona’s dreams of a second consecutive Champions League final were doused by an ultra-defensive Inter Milan on Wednesday night at the Camp Nou. Pep Guardiola ignored criticism of his selection of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the first leg of the match, and put the big Swede in the line-up for another chance to make the Italians wish they’d kept him. Another surprise was in the works as Yaya Toure started as a center-half with Gabi Milito pushed out to the left wing. Inter manager Jose Mourinho originally named Goran Pandev in his line-up, only to pull him for failing a fitness test at the last moment and replacing him with Cristian Chivu. Barca had a 1-3 deficit to make up from the first leg and, without Eric Abidal, Andres Iniesta or Carles Puyol available, it looked like a tough task from the get-go.

Barcelona dominated possession early, as they would for the entire match. Although some though Mourinho would push for the away goal, he and Inter showed their intentions early on with no real striker in the formation as a couple of strikers with Barcelona connections, Gabi Milito’s brother Diego and long-time culeSamuel Eto’o played mostly on the wings. Inter’s defense was terrifically organized, reminding some observers of the famous catenaccio style the same club was famous for in the 1960s. In spite of the dominance in possession for the blaugrana, they couldn’t find a way through.

The key moment of the match came in the 28th minute when Thiago Motta was sent off for putting a hand to Sergio Busquets’ face. It was Motta’s second yellow (not a straight red like the match commenter said) and much has been made of his pre-game complaints about Barcelona diving. He erased any sympathy he might’ve had for what looked like a harsh sending-off by grabbing Busquets from the back of the neck after the card was produced, and generally throwing a tantrum on his way off the pitch. Mourinho sarcastically applauded the referee and then sent his team back for the ultra-defense.

Lionel Messi had the only really good chance in the first half, dribbling past two Inter defenders and curling a shot that was saved by Inter’s Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar. At half-time, even with the score still locked at 0-0, there was reason for optimism for Barca with their opponents down to 10 men. Barcelona had dominated possession and more-or-less stayed camped in the Inter half for the whole of the first half. Even Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder were back in defense for Inter. (One can’t help but wonder whether Ibra would’ve done the same.)

Guardiola started the second half by replacing Milito with Maxwell, giving the side a proper left-back even as defense started to seem beside the point. Inter never looked like making an attacking move, and were content to push everyone back and just clear the ball into space whenever they wrested it away from Barcelona’s attack. The increasingly frustrated Barcelona attack started hopefully lobbing balls into the area for Ibra, who couldn’t connect with any. Guardiola finally decided to go for a smaller, skillful attack by replacing Ibrahimovic with Bojan and Busquets with Jeffren at the 63rd minute.

For the next 20 minutes, it was the same story. Wave after wave of Barcelona attack, constantly stifled by the impenetrable Inter defense. In the 84th minute, a Gerard Pique who was no more or less offside than Diego Milito was 8 days earlier took advantage of some rare open space and buried Barcelona’s lifeline in the back of the net. The Catalan faithful at the Camp Nou perked up after that, and the noise in the stadium was palpable for the remaining 9 minutes (including extra time) of the match.

Bojan Krkic seemed to score the winner for Barcelona a couple of minutes later, but it was called off by the referee for a Yaya Toure hand-ball. The Inter defense managed to do what they’d done all game, and fended off several Barcelona attacks in the closing minutes. The blaugrana were hoping for a repeat of Iniesta’s miracle goal at Chelsea last season, but it was not to come. The final whistle blew, Mourinho had his self-satisfied celebration on the pitch, and the club went back to the dressing room to start thinking about winning the league.