The wheels on the bus have just come off, just come off, just come off, the wheels.......

Take a team coached by a manager who once accused the opposition of parking the bus in front of the goal at 'the bridge' and set them loose against a team who look like their bus journey took longer than the one experienced by Alexander the Meerkat's ancestors and you were only going to get one winner.

Barcelona may have been out there on the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza but you'd be hard pressed to say they turned up for anything more than the first ten minutes and the last ten. For most of the first half they played with nine men, Zlatan Ibrahimovic did the best impression of a disinterested striker by somebody not called Dimitar Berbatov and Lionel Messi played like a young man who had suffered the indignity of having his Shakira CD collection nicked on the coach from Spain and swapped for one by Kate Nash.

Barcelona's goal was a thing of beauty, the run down the left by Maxwell, the look-up and cut-back to Pedro, it had all the hallmarks of the Catalan mean machine, but they peaked too early. Inter clung on through the first half like a meat eater to the last burger in town, they came out of the home dressing room at the start of the second half possessed by something, probably the wise words of the 'special one' ringing in their ears.

Puyol and Pique managed to get themselves booked and thereby missing the second leg, Dani Alves also got booked which could mean he misses the final again and Inter scored two goals, one of them so far offside you had to think the Assistant Referee was talking to somebody in the crowd at the time, but nevertheless Inter scored three and should have scored six.

The second leg will be different, hopefully, Barcelona cannot be so woeful at home. With Pique missing Pep Guardiola will have to play Gabi Milito against his brother. Milito (the Barca one) is a class act and I can't understand why he doesn't play regularly. Pique is talented but just like his equally talented former team mate Rio Ferdinand he is prone to lapses of concentration when it matters. It seemed ironic that Pique should be responsible for two of the goals due to this lack of concentration in the stadium that has witnessed the careers of three of Europe's finest ever central defenders: Franco Baresi, Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro, players who understood that you have to earn the right to play by making tackles count.

Tonight sees the artisans of Bayern Munich against the artists of Lyon. Lyon look too fragile to get much from the first leg whilst Bayern knock the ball around for fun before going for the jugular. If Bayern don't win easily I'll eat my lederhosen.