PEP SAVES FACE
Bayern boss grabs consolation win but Barca head for final
Thomas muller collected the ball just outside the area, sized up the angle and curled a quite beautiful shot into the bottom corner. The allianz arena roared its approval. and then they remembered: just another three needed. In 15 minutes. oh dear.
This was an excellent game if you forgot about the scoreline. The real scoreline that is. Not the one on the night. Bayern munich went ahead, Barcelona rallied and took the lead, munich equalised, munich won. end-to-end stuff.
In reality, nothing happened. munich started the game needing three goals to take it to extra-time, and ended the game needing three to progress. The closest they got was an eight-minute spell in the first half when two goals were needed to force the additional 30 minutes.
For 15 minutes they were four short, for 30 minutes they trailed by five. It was one of those illusory matches, like the one roman abramovich fell in love with, between real madrid and manchester united in 2003.
That was exhibition stuff, too. end to end, because united were never close on aggregate. equally, munich’s fans left this game happy. They salvaged pride, put up a good show — but, in truth, didn’t lay a glove on Barcelona. The early goal only made the Catalans angry. They wrapped the tie up 23 minutes later and, from there, it was academic.
By the time muller hit his winner, the odd fan was on the way home. It gets busy on the a9 near the stadium and everyone knew where this was heading. Bayern put back in their box at the semi-final stage, once again. This wasn’t as chasten- ing as last year’s spanish lesson from real madrid but only because there was less on it to begin with. madrid came here shielding a single goal lead, Barcelona had the tie as good as won.
‘one city, one dream,’ read the large display around the ground, but within 30 minutes what had unfolded was a waking nightmare. The widespread wisdom was that munich needed an early goal but nothing could have been further from the truth. one just after half-time, and it would have been interesting to see how Barcelona saw out the last 40 minutes — particularly with luis suarez off with a hamstring injury.
Yet scoring after seven minutes meant the teams had all the time in the world to trade blows.
The problem is, Barcelona are better at the football munich wish to play. a spoiling team might get a lucky break from a set-piece — their one vulnerability — but take them on at football and it only plays to their strengths. so munich rather sweetly blundered in after seven minutes from a Xabi alonso corner and paid the price.
medhi Benatia rose unmarked 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. lionel messi (right) 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 was marvellous. There were munich chances after that, quite a few 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. 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 finishing smartly past Neuer. With messi he now forms the most prolific Champions league scoring partnership since ruud van Nistelrooy and ole Gunnar solskjaer for manchester united in 2001-02.
Could it have been different? Well, yes, had munich taken every chance presented to them. Ter stegen was excellent in keeping them at bay in the first half: a muller header after 19 minutes, a robert lewandowski shot after 27. muller should have done much better in the 29th minute, lewandowski after 40, both set up by Thiago alcantara.
In the second half, lewandowski made amends, of sorts, with arguably the goal of the night. receiving the ball to feet, he got the jump on Javier mascherano, switched it from his left to his right and curled it sweetly into the corner of the net. on many other european occasions in Bavaria, it would have been a goal that told of future glory. here it was a footnote, a trifle, an irrelevance. To their credit, munich kept probing but it was more through memory than belief.
The best thing about having the finest 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 freekick 40 yards from munich’s goal and, instead of putting it in the mixer, messi side-footed a pass to suarez who had four opponents around 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.
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 was 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 home fans still sang, waved their flags and bounced on demand, but it had a hollow ring. Barcelona sliced through them with surgical precision when it mattered, working furiously when necessary.
In the last 12 minutes of the first leg and for a quarter of an hour of the first half here, they swept munich from the board. It was more than enough, no matter the noise and fury of the locals. If the spanish strike holds, this could be Barcelona’s last game for 25 days. It’s fair to say they’ll be missed.