Raphinha matched Cristiano Ronaldo for the greatest individual Champions League season, but finished on the losing side in an instant semi-final classic.
The former Leeds star’s 87th-minute strike appeared to have sealed a stunning comeback win for Barca as they went 3-2 up on the night and 6-5 on aggregate.
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However, it went to extra time as Francesco Acerbi netted an equaliser deep into stoppage-time.
After a remarkable 3-3 first leg at Montjuic, part two at San Siro lived up to expectations and then some with the same scoreline inside 90 minutes.
Inter did what they excelled at in Spain last week with another rapid start, going 2-0 up again, this time through Lautaro Martinez and then Hakan Calhanoglou from the penalty spot.
It looked like Barca were in huge trouble, but they once again stepped up after the break with Eric Garcia and then Dani Olmo levelling things up.
Raphinha then thought he’d booked a final spot in Munich with his late strike, only to be denied by Acerbi.
The Serie A giants won the tie in extra time thanks to a neat left-footed strike by Davide Frattesi in the first period.
Lamine Yamal threatened to take the contest to penalties, but he was denied by two superb saves from Inter gloveman Yann Sommer.
The Brazil international wasn’t denied an astonishing piece of history, though, as his goal made it 21 contributions this season – 13 goals, eight assists.
That equals Ronaldo’s 21 from the 2013/14 season with Real Madrid, a watermark that looked like it would never be matched.
Ronaldo has an argument to keep himself top, though, as he reached 21 in 11 games, while this was Raphinha’s 14th match of the season in Europe.
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Although that will be scant consolation for the Ballon d’Or contender with Barca suffering more European heartache having exited the competition in similarly gut-wrenching circumstances in 2019, when they lost 4-3 on aggregate to Liverpool.
In fact, Barcelona’s loss to Inter was the eighth time they’d been eliminated at the semi-final stage of the Champions League.
It is the equal-most amount of times any team had exited the Champions League at that stage alongside Real Madrid.
Not only that, Barcelona have now failed to progress to the final for the fourth time from their last five semi-final berths.
Inter, who lost the 2023 final to Manchester City, will meet the winner of the Paris Saint-Germain vs Arsenal tie in the final at the Allianz Arena on May 31.
The Parisians hold a 1-0 lead on aggregate over Arsenal thanks to Ousmane Dembele’s early strike.
Listen to full commentary of PSG vs Arsenal on Wednesday night, live on talkSPORT.
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