Is the Ballon d'Or dream over for Barcelona's superstars? Winners and losers as gutting Champions League exit hits Lamine Yamal and Raphinha's Golden Ball hopes hard while Inter show the world why they belong among Europe's elite

Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Pedri, Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram, Nicolo Barella... There were so many world-class performers involved in this semi-final for the ages. So, how on earth did Denzel Dumfries end up being the star of the show?!

Remember, the Dutchman had only just made his return from injury as a substitute in Inter's loss to Roma four days before the first leg - and yet he proved a one-man wrecking ball in Catalunya, creating the opening goal for Thuram inside 60 seconds before scoring a stunning scissors-kick and then a towering header.

In Milan, meanwhile, he sprung Barca's offside trap to tee up Lautaro for a tap-in before somehow summoning up the energy for one more foray down the right flank to pull the ball back for Acerbi to draw Inter level in the third minute of injury time. Perhaps even more remarkably, Dumfries continued battling for a further 18 minutes in extra time before finally succumbing to exhaustion.

"I've just come back from injury, so it was not easy," the wing-back admitted to Amazon Prime. "But I just wanted to help the team." Dumfries did more than that, though. He propelled his team into the final - and became an Inter icon in the process.

Like it or not, the race for this year's Ballon d'Or has become a much-discussed subplot during the Champions League semi-finals, with plenty of pundits championing Yamal's cause after his extraordinary performance against Inter at Montjuic.

The teenager was a constant threat on Tuesday, too - he completed a staggering 14 dribbles at San Siro - but could find no way past Yann Sommer this time around, while he only created one chance in 120 minutes.Raphinha, meanwhile, scored what looked like the winner, but was otherwise subdued.

Barcelona's elimination means that the path is now clear for Ousmane Dembele to boost his Ballon d'Or bid by leading Paris Saint-Germain past Arsenal at Parc des Princes on Wednesday, after netting the only goal of last week's first leg at the Emirates.

Of course, were the Gunners to progress, Mohamed Salah's name might even be brought back into the conversation, given his record-breaking exploits in the Premier League would give him an outside shot of victory if he were going up against rivals without a Champions League medal around their necks.

Much, then, will depend on whether Dembele's PSG reach the final, but let's not overlook the fact that Inter have just booked their ticket to Munich, meaning their talismanic captain Lautaro suddenly has a surprise shot at lifting the European Cup - and maybe the Ballon d'Or too...

There should be no underestimating the scale of the crisis Simone Inzaghi was facing going into last week's first leg at Montjuic. For the first time in 13 years, Inter had lost three games in a row in all competitions without scoring a single goal, resulting in them being replaced at the summit of Serie A by Napoli and dumped out of the Coppa Italia by city rivals AC Milan.

Few pundits gave them any chance of beating a brilliant Barcelona side over two legs - especially with Thuram and Dumfries having only just returned from injury, and several key men looking utterly exhausted. However, Inzaghi somehow managed to summon two extraordinary performances out of his over-stretched and over-matched squad.

Inter inevitably struggled to contain the Lionel Messi-like Yamal for long periods of the tie, but they never capitulated in the face of almost relentless pressure - and, far more importantly, figured out a way to repeatedly breach Barca's high line.

For both feats, Inzaghi and his players deserve the kind of gushing praise that the 2023 finalists have been inexplicably denied for far too long.

Beppe Marotta really is the master of the transfer market. In the summer of 2022, he picked up Andre Onana on a free transfer from Ajax. The following year, he sold him to Manchester United for £47 million ($57m). Even better, Marotta paid just €6m (£5.1m/$6.5m) for Onana's replacement, Sommer, who has proven the most incredible upgrade on the Old Trafford flop.

The Swiss was by no means flawless against Barcelona. Perfectionist that he is, Sommer will no doubt be disappointed with the way in which he parried Raphinha's late strike right back to the Brazilian, rather than pushing it away to safety. But it's fair to say that the ex-Bayern Munich man more than made amends for his one mistake.

Having already made one extraordinary point-black range save to deny Eric Garcia an equaliser during the second half of normal time, Sommer produced an even better effort in extra time to keep out Yamal's goal-bound shott with his fingertips.

There wasn't a person in the ground that thought the teenager's strike was going to end up anywhere but the top corner of the Inter net, so when the ball flew wide it drew an audible gasp of disbelief from Beppe Bergomi on Sky Sport Italia before the Inter icon roared: "He saved it! Sommer saved it!"

It really was a special stop. And absolutely crucial too. Indeed, it immediately evoked memories of Julio Cesar's equally important save from Messi at Camp Nou when Inter last faced Barca in a Champions League semi-final all the way back in 2010.

It had to happen eventually. Barcelona were always bound to come across a top team in this season's Champions League capable of fully exploiting their high line - and they were lucky that they didn't run into one until the semi-finals.

Remember, the Catalans only had to beat Benfica and Borussia Dortmund to reach the last four, and even the latter exposed Barca's defensive shortcomings at Signal Iduna Park back on April 15. Inter, with their terrific front two and rampaging wing-backs, were always likely to prove a much sterner test of the Blaugrana backline - and they failed it miserably.

Granted, Barca's wonderful wingers and magnificent midfielders very nearly bailed them out during a sensational second-half showing at San Siro, and Hansi Flick was rightly proud of his players' performance as they'd once again wowed the watching world with their thrilling commitment to attacking football. Perhaps even more satisfyingly for their manager, they'd demonstrated impressive resilience in coming from behind to lead a game that looked lost.

However, the bottom line is that Barca ended up conceding seven goals in two games against Inter. The Nerazzurri could have scored even more, too, if their passing in the final third had been a bit better, particularly in the second leg.

It was disappointing, then, to hear Flick complaining about the referee after his side's elimination, with the German claiming that "every 50-50 decision was for Inter" - a claim as unfounded as it was petty.

He would have been better off staying quiet and instead wondering whether he can really win a Champions League with this Barca team playing such a high line - because while it undoubtedly enables his side to suffocate opponents with their pressing, it also leaves them horribly exposed to the kind of slick counter-attacks that Inter have made their specialty.

Francesco Acerbi once told the Gazzetta dello Sportthat the "terrible paradox" of his life was that, "without cancer, I would have retired at 28. After beating cancer, my real life began, giving me a second chance."

To say that he's taken it would be colossal understatement. The mere fact that Acerbi was playing in a Champions League semi-final against Barca at 37 years of age was an extraordinary achievement in itself. This, remember, is a man that also had to overcome a drinking problem during the early part of his career after being devastated by the death of his father.

"I felt empty," he admitted, "and football was meaningless." With his injury-time equaliser at San Siro on Tuesday, though, Acerbi reminded everyone just how important - and how beautiful - the game can still be.