Bayern Munich 4-0 Barcelona: Messi and Co overrun as Germans all but seal final berth
The Bavarians outclassed their Catalan opponents in a manner
rarely seen, and with a four-goal advantage to take into the second leg,
are surely favorites for a Wembley place...
Bayern Munich took a massive step towards the Champions League final with an incredible 4-0 thrashing of Barcelona in the first leg of their last-four clash at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.
On the same day that they stunned the football world by capturing Mario Gotze from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund, the Bavarian giants again reminded everyone that they are a force to be reckoned with by playing the toothless Blaugrana off the pitch.
Thomas
Muller opened the scoring with a close-range header, and put the second
on a plate for Mario Gomez minutes into the second half.
Muller
would controversially play a role in Arjen Robben's goal after appearing
to foul Jordi Alba off the ball, before tapping in the fourth himself
with eight minutes remaining to round off the biggest-ever margin of
victory in a Champions League semi-final. Mario Gomez replaced the suspended Mario Mandzukic up front for the
hosts, while for the visitors, Marc Bartra partnered Gerard Pique in
defence with Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano injured. Bayern could have been ahead as early as the fourth minute. Robben
exchanged passes with Gomez, and it took the outstretched legs of Victor
Valdes to deny the Dutch winger from point-blank range. Barca were winning the possession battle, but it was the Bavarian
side who controlled the opening exchanges. Javi Martinez’s tumble in the
box was correctly ignored by the referee, who was forced into a bigger
no-call when Philipp Lahm’s shot struck Pique’s elbow. The Barca defender headed wide at the other end from a corner, but it
was an isolated scare from the blunted Catalans, and with 25 minutes on
the clock, Bayern made their superiority count.
A corner was worked to Robben, whose cross was flicked on by Dante, and Muller was first to the ball, sneaking a header past Valdes at the near post.
But Dante had to be alert to prevent a quick response from Barca,
poking away Dani Alves’ cross at full stretch from the unmarked Lionel
Messi, in a dangerous position where an own-goal could have easily
occurred.
Gomez then picked up the first yellow card of the game for barging
into Messi, and he was quickly followed into the book by Bartra and
Martinez for challenges on Muller and Andres Iniesta either side of the
interval. But any hopes that Barca had for the half-time break to revitalize
them were dashed only four minutes after the restart, when Bayern
exposed their soft centre once again to go two goals ahead.
Just like the first goal, Robben’s delivery was met by a Bayern head, with Muller guiding the ball towards the goal line, where Gomez was waiting to gleefully bundle the ball home, albeit from an unnoticed offside position.
The Bundesliga side were simply dominating, and the match threatened
to get ugly very fast for Barca had Muller and Franck Ribery been more
accurate when presented with the chance to pick their spot from great
shooting positions.
But the third goal was always on the cards, and it duly arrived with
17 minutes remaining, albeit in contentious circumstances. Muller’s
off-the-ball block on Alba went unheeded, and with the full-back out of
the way, Robben curled sublimely into the far corner. And in the 82nd minute, it was 4-0. David Alaba’s overlapping run
down the left ended with a low cross into the six-yard area, where Muller
was waiting to turn into the back of the net to leave the second leg at
Camp Nou as little more than a formality, and finish off an epic 24
hours for Bayern.
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