Thierry Henry calls out Champions League rule change that 'everyone just had to accept' after Barcelona's draw with Inter Milan

Thierry Henry questioned UEFA over a significant change to its competitions including the Champions League and Europa League.

Arsenal legend Henry was speaking on CBS after a remarkable 3-3 draw between Inter Milan and Barcelona, with whom he won the Champions League, in Wednesday's semi-final first leg.

Barcelona were at home and had to claw their way back after conceding twice early in the first half.

Inter's three goals, one for Marcus Thuram in the first minute followed by two from Netherlands international Denzel Dumfries, were the focus of Henry's complaint.

During his post-match analysis with presenter Kate Scott and former Premier League defenders Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, Henry railed against a rule change that was implemented by UEFA in 2021.

The semi-final tie would have had a whole different complexion five years ago.

"It's been like that for a very long time and we have to accept it but off-air I was talking to Jamie and I'm like 'How can you score three goals away from home and you don't have an advantage?'" rattled Henry.

Prior to 2021, clubs participating in two-legged ties in UEFA competitions faced the tie-breaker of the away goals rule if they were level after both legs. The team with the most goals scored away from home across the two matches would go through without extra time and penalties. If the same were true today, Inter would have been in a very strong position.

"Away goals for me were massive," continued Arsenal's all-time leading scorer.

"[But to] score three goals away and you still don't have an advantage, I mean, [you would need] a 0-0 at home.

"But like I said, look, I didn't think that Inter Milan was going to perform they way that they did just because of how they played recently.

"So you have to give them a lot of credit for matching up what Barcelona gave them."

Thierry Henry (Image: Getty)

It's easy to say Inter are disadvantaged by the abolition of the away goals rule after one of their two legs but they'd be happy enough to accept it if the second leg ended 4-4.

When the rule was in place, it was widely considered to unduly amplify the advantage of the team playing the second leg of a tie in their own stadium.

The away goals rule was jettisoned because its impact on matches had evolved over its 60 years to have the exact opposite of its intended effect.

Teams playing at home in the first leg would often defend a clean sheet, seeking to then nick a score draw in the return leg. Attacking football was not the outcome.

It's impossible to know for sure that Barcelona would have approached the first leg differently in the away goals era but we can assume based on six decades of the rule that the match would have had been more defensively focused.

Maybe Inter would still have scored three and had a serious advantage and maybe they wouldn't, but few were discussing the away goals rule – abolished after many years of debate – before Wednesday's first leg.