BARCA FINISH THE JOB
Bayern boss grabs consolation win but Barca head for final
DESPITE losing 3-2 at Bayern Munich last night, Barcelona reached the Champions League final with an aggregate 5-3 win over Pep Guardiola’s side. Barca forward Neymar scored twice in the first half to kill off Bayern’s chances following the Spanish side’s 3-0 first leg win at the Nou Camp last week. Neymar was twice picked out by Luis Suarez, after the hosts’ seventh minute lead through Medhi Benatia had briefly reignited the German side’s hopes. Bayern struck back with second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller but were still left needing another three.
ROBERT Lewandowski received the ball to feet, got the step on Javier Mascherano, switched it from his left to his right and curled a shot sweetly into the corner of the net.
On many other European nights in Bavaria, it would have been a goal that told of future glory. Here, it was a footnote, a trifle, an irrelevance.
Lewandowski levelled the score on the night but the tie itself was long gone. Thomas Muller hit a beautiful Bayern winner from just outside the penalty area after 74 minutes, but the odd fan was already on the way home.
Bayern Munich had been put back in their box, again. Barcelona had taken the 2015 final away from them in the first half with two goals, if they hadn’t already done that in the Nou Camp a week ago.
Neymar’s double inside 30 minutes made the hour that f ollowed l argely academic. Munich at one stage trailed 5-1 on aggregate.
To their credit they kept probing, but more through memory than belief. Munich salvaged some pride, but the best team went through.
In the last 12 minutes of the first leg and for a quarter of an through them with surgical precision, incisive, insightful, working furiously when the occasion demanded.
Munich had some excellent chances — they had to, they opened the night needing three and that demand increased as the game wore on — but Barcelona were quite magnificent.
Going behind early, they responded with two goals that ended the contest bar the obligations.
Neymar had three touches inside Bayern’s penalty area in the opening 30 minutes and scored twice. With Messi, he forms the most prolific Champions League partnership since Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Manchester United in 2001-02.
The best thing about having the best technical footballers in the world is that it allows a team to do outrageous things. Like the moment midway through the first half when Barcelona had a free-kick 40 yards from the Munich goal and, instead of putting it in the mixer, Lionel Messi side-footed a short pass to Luis Suarez who had f our opponents surrounding him.
Stuff like this happens all the time. Players take the initiative, demand the ball no matter the circumstances . Wonderful angles result, players get sucked into a Barcelona black hole, moved out of position so deftly it is as if they are on strings pulled from above.
Munich’s first g oal was a humble setpiece, Barcelona’s first two stunning counter-attacks, speed of thought matching t he speed with which they tore into Munich. Pep Guardiola alternated between three and four at the back, as he had at the Nou Camp, but neither made much difference. Perhaps he should try another number. Eight, or 10. It is pointless trying to play Barcelona as equals and maybe that i s Guardiola’s vanity peeking through. He couldn’t bear to try to throw a blanket over his old team, so he went toe to toe.
The problem is Barcelona are better at the football Munich wish to play. A spoiling team might get a lucky break. Take them on at football and it only plays to their strengths.
It was also said Munich needed an early goal, but that may have been a misjudgment, too. One before half-time and it would have been interesting to see how Barcelona reacted. Scoring after seven minutes meant they had all the time in the world to trade blows. ‘Don’t score too soon,’ would be the advice with hindsight. ‘It will only annoy them.’
Instead, Munich went blundering in from a Xabi Alonso corner and paid the price. Medhi Benatia rose unmarked — if there is one vulnerability in this Barcelona team it is the ability to defend set plays — and was allowed a free header which Marc-Andre ter Stegen could not keep out.
The Allianz Arena went bananas. Here it was unfolding before their eyes — the greatest comeback in Champions League history. That dream didn’t last long. Eight minutes, give or take the odd second.
It was a beautiful riposte. Messi slid a lovely pass into the path of Suarez, who burst through a leaden back line and drew Manuel Neuer before squaring the ball for Neymar to tap into an empty net.
It would have looked good in meme form on the computer screen. In the flesh it looked ruddy marvellous.
There were Munich chances after that, quite a f ew of them, but in the 30th minute Barcelona settled it.
It was a goal that owed something to Wimbledon, and more to the Royal Ballet. Ter Stegen struck a big kick from his hands for Suarez to chase, which he did with considerably more vim than those around him.
Veering wide to the right, he delayed his cross until Neymar had got the space he needed in the middle, and then picked him out.
Neymar chested the ball down and also waited for the right moment before f i ni s hi ng smartly past Neuer. There will be no local presence in the Berlin final on June 6.
Could it have been different? Well, yes, had Munich taken every chance presented to them. Ter Stegen was excellent i n keeping them at bay: a Muller header after 19 minutes, a Lewandowski shot after 27. Muller should have done much better i n the 29th minute, Lewandowski after 40, both chances set up by Thiago Alcantara.
If the Spanish strike holds, this could be Barcelona’s last game for 25 days. It’s fair to say they’ll be missed.