The wounds of Davide Frattesi's extra time match-winner at San Siro that pulled the plug on Barcelona's hopes of ending a decade long Champions League title drought are still wide open.
Coming so close to reaching the summit of European soccer and once and for all vanquishing the demons of recent European capitulations will unquestionably damage the mood inside Barcelona's dressing room. But make no mistake, the defeat to Inter in the Champions League semifinals doesn't even come close to making Barcelona's season a failure.
Not when Barcelona host Real Madrid on Sunday with a chance to checkmate the La Liga title race and essentially put one hand on the third trophy in Hansi Flick's first season in charge. Not when Barcelona are 90 minutes away from achieving something never done before by any previous iteration of the team in El Clásico history.
Barcelona are one win away from defeating Real Madrid for a fourth time this season en route to a perfect El Clásico record, something never achieved before in a campaign where the two Spanish giants met four or more times. The Catalans haven't won four Clásicos in a single season since Diego Armando Maradona led the team that did so in 1982-83; however, there was a fifth Clásico that season that ended in a draw and spoiled Barça's perfect season record over their rivals.
Last summer, few people gave Barcelona a chance to compete against the La Liga and Champions League holders reinforced by the signing of Kylian Mbappé, especially in what was supposed to be a season of transition. Nine months later, Barça have turned doubters into believers and their performances this term have put their bitter rivals along with the entirety of European soccer on notice: Barcelona are back.
