Alan Shearer perhaps summed it up best when he rounded off his commentary for broadcaster Amazon Prime by simply thanking both sides.

"Thank you Inter Milan, thank you Barcelona for providing us with incredible entertainment and two great football matches," he said.

"What we have witnessed has been something very special. It's been a pleasure to be here."

Image source, Getty Images

Mat makes sense of it in binary form there, but seriously, where do you start?

Players on both sides ended the match in tears, but there were no recriminations at the full-time whistle, just a mutual respect.

The emotion flooded out of centre-back Francesco Acerbi, who was pushed forward at the end of normal time and scored his first European goal at the age of 37 to make it 3-3 on the night and 6-6 on aggregate.

Inter players rushed to offer their commiserations to Barcelona stars Lamine Yamal and Raphinia, who had done so much to drag their side back from two goals down to the brink of victory, before substitute Davide Frattesi settled the tie with an extra-time winner.

Frattesi found the bottom corner with a cultured strike to make it 4-3 on the night, 7-6 on aggregate - the combined 13 goals over the two legs the joint highest for a Champions League semi-final.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Mat, Spurs fan in Liverpool: The scoring pattern over the two legs - Inter, Inter, Barca, Barca, Barca, Inter, Inter, Inter, Barca, Barca, Barca. Inter Inter.

How do you sum up a game like that?

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images