Inter Milan hopeful of recovering a key forward for the first leg against Barcelona but a key defender will miss this game | OneFootball

FC Barcelona celebrated their Copa del Rey triumph, with a win over Real Madrid in the final on Saturday, in a somewhat subdued manner, mainly because the Blaugranes are still competing for two more titles.

In fact, the Catalans have a crucial match coming up ahead for them as they face Inter Milan in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final right after the Copa final, on Wednesday.

As already reported, Hansi Flick will be without some of his key players for this game, as Alejandro Balde has been practically ruled out for this match.

On the other hand, Inter Milan have some mixed news in this regard. As SPORT has reported, the good news for the Nerazzurri was that one of their key forwards, Marcus Thuram, is speeding up his recovery process and is now highly likely to make the squad for this upcoming game against Barcelona.

The Frenchman still trained on his own on Monday, away from the rest of the team. However, reports suggest that this was quite a high-intensity session, and the Italian team is planning to have him for their trip to the Catalan city. The Inter Milan President, Giuseppe Marotta, himself believed Marcus Thuram will be able to travel with the team for this trip.

This is definitely great news for the Italian side, as the three games that the Frenchman has missed have resulted in three defeats for his team, without even a single goal scored. Thus, his return can reinvigorate the Nerazzurri attack, especially with his good chemistry with Lautaro Martinez.

On the other hand, as Sempre Inter has reported, the bad news for Inter is that the centre-back Benjamin Pavard will not be able to play the first leg against Barcelona, after having suffered an ankle injury in the loss to Roma.

Inter Milan defender Benjamin Pavard. [Photo by Simone Arveda/Getty Images]

Yann Bisseck is expected to replace the Frenchman for this game, but it is clear that Inter Milan will miss Pavard quite a lot against an attack as good as Barcelona’s.