The Champions League duel between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, performed on Wednesday on the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, bore big significance for each groups because of the truth that they each had grounds to make up after struggling comparatively shocking defeats by the hands of AS Monaco and Aston Villa, respectively. One other loss would’ve arguably raised issues about round-of-16 qualification for both, and because it occurred, it’s Bayern who will probably have began worrying.
Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona lower than a minute into the match, and having one purpose dominated out for offside, Harry Kane equalized for Bayern within the 18th minute. Robert Lewandowski dealt a blow to his former membership by reinstating Barcelona’s lead within the thirty sixth minute, and Raphinha proved he was on hearth as he struck twice extra to land a hat-trick, within the forty fifth and 56th.
The groups
Each coaches organized their respective groups in a 4-2-3-1 form.
For Barcelona, Inaki Pena was in purpose, picked forward of Wojciech Szczesny within the absence of Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Pau Cubarsi paired up with Inigo Martinez within the coronary heart of defence, with Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde masking the defensive flanks. Pedri and Marc Casado had been tasked with controlling the center of the park whereas Raphinha, Fermin Lopez and Lamine Yamal supported Lewandowski upfront.
For Bayern, Manuel Neuer stood between the posts. Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano fashioned the centre-back duo, with Alphonso Davies on the left and Raphael Guerreiro on the best. Joshua Kimmich paired up with Joao Palhinha in midfield. Kane led the road in assault, with Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller and Michael Olise in help.
The sport and slight controversy
Barcelona clearly acquired off to a dream begin, getting forward after solely 58 seconds. As Lewandowski dropped deep to obtain the ball, dragging Kim out of place, Pedri picked it up and employed Lopez, whose positional interchange with Raphinha resembled a castling transfer in chess, as he moved to the left and the Brazilian winger went inside. It pulled Upamecano out of place and confused Kimmich, and with Kim already out of the sport, it was simple for Lopez to slide it by way of for Raphinha, who now had a one-0n-one state of affairs with Neuer, went across the German veteran goalkeeper and fired into the gaping internet. It was a superb piece of attacking play from Barcelona, helped by a little bit of naive defending from Bayern.
However Bayern clearly wouldn’t have six Champions League trophies of their cupboard if that they had a fame for melting away after conceding early. They struck again in a short time and uncovered Barcelona’s defence of their flip, and although the Catalans had been saved by Kane uncharacteristically not staying onside to attain within the tenth minute, the England captain acquired his equalizer eight minutes later.
As Kim despatched an extended ball in direction of Olise on the best, the previous Crystal Palace winger managed to catch the Barcelona defence off guard by shortly switching play to interact Gnabry on the left, and Gnabry’s cross discovered Kane who did what he does greatest from six yards.
Within the twenty sixth minute, one other nice play from Barcelona enabled Lewandowski to shoot from simply outdoors the field, however the shot trickled huge of the put up. And 10 minutes later, there got here an arguably controversial second when Lewandowski did reinstate the house facet’s lead.
Yamal despatched an extended ball over Bayern’s again line to search out Lopez, and it appeared at first Kim had misjudged its flight and did not make what ought to’ve been a straightforward clearance. As each Upamecano and Neuer got here dashing in direction of Lopez, the Barcelona midfielder squared it deftly for Lewandowski who merely doesn’t miss from there.
Nevertheless, a number of Bayern gamers protested to referee Slavko Vincic of Slovenia, and a slow-motion footage revealed that Lopez had pushed Kim within the again whereas the Korean defender was within the air, stopping from reacting correctly. There was a VAR examine and to the shock of most amongst those that had the privilege of seeing the slow-motion footage, the purpose was allowed to face.
Raphinha
The final feeling is that Bayern had been critically aggrieved there, and that their tumble downhill started in that second. Alternatively, nothing needs to be taken away from the attacking efficiency of Raphinha, or certainly, the entire Barcelona staff. One other 9 minutes later, Cubarsi’s beautiful diagonal discovered the person of the second, and he turned Guerreiro inside-out earlier than firing a roller into the far nook to make it 3-1 earlier than halftime.
Bayern pushed to cut back the deficit after the break, however other than one not superb try from Palhinha, they by no means acquired near it earlier than Raphinha struck once more within the 56th minute. The Blaugrana exploded right into a counterattack after a Bayern nook, and it was Pedri and Yamal who mixed once more to set the previous Leeds winger as much as full his hat-trick.
As for Bayern, Kingsley Coman got here off the bench to spoil a improbable probability as fellow substitute Leroy Sane put it on a platter for him on the stroke of 65 minutes, and that was about it with regards to their efforts to get again into the sport.
Raphinha now has 17 purpose contributions in 13 matches throughout all competitions this season for Barcelona, consisting of 9 targets and eight assists. It appears the sight of some Barcelona followers holding the shirt along with his quantity – 11 – and the title of Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams over the summer time, actually hit a nerve and sparked a fierce response from the 27-year-old.
The aftermath
Bayern have now suffered two defeats from three Champions League matches and presently sit in twenty third place within the desk of the brand new competitors format, with three factors. It’s clearly approach too early to be making any conclusions about knockout-stage progress, however the state of affairs leaves the window for potential future errors very slim for the Bavarians.
However their quick concern might be to keep away from dropping any factors as they journey to face Bochum later this week, in the event that they want to hold their place on the high of the Bundesliga desk.
In the meantime, Barcelona are tenth with six factors, extra comfy in that side, and this vital triumph is ready to carry them in good spirits as they put together for the El Clasico that awaits at Actual Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night.
