Bayern handed out a good old-fashioned shellacking to Barcelona last night. With the tie probably over, what does it mean for the landscape of European football?
Andres Iniesta only completed three passes to Lionel Messi last night. Of all the many mind-blowing stats from last night’s 4-0 win that one stands out as an indication of just how much Bayern put Barca off their game.
For example, in their last away Champions League game, in Paris, Iniesta hooked up with the little Argentinian eight times, and Messi only played the first half.
Part of the drop off in connection between Iniesta and Messi was down to the latter looking a little off the pace because of that hamstring injury, but it had much more to do with a powerful display by the Bayern Munich midfield.
Javier Martinez and Bastien Schweinstieger were immense last night, covering the sodden Allianz Arena turf like demons all night. They closed down the space tirelessly, leaving the likes of Xavi and Iniesta no room to move. That coupled with the lack of a cutting edge provided by Messi and Alexis Sanchez meant Barcelona mustered just one attempt on target all night. Manuel Neuer was in ‘pipe and slippers’ territory.
But even more kudos must go to Jupp Heynckes’ men than just crowding the middle and capitalising on a below-par Barca. As he has been all tournament, Frank Ribery was tireless in his work as he and David Alaba shut down the left hand side of the pitch. On the other flank, even more incredibly, Arjen Robben tracked back and even passed the ball to his team-mates when it was the right thing to do.
We also have to mention that Bayern are the first team we can recall to fully exploit Barcelona’s weakness at set-pieces. Dante won virtually every ball that was swung into the box and the Barcelona defence just couldn’t cope with him, Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez and the rest of the Bayern behemoths. The unwillingness, or inability, of Victor Valdes to come for high balls is another contributory factor.
Finally there was the excellence of Muller, who scored two and can claim an assist for the third goal thanks to his NBA-style screen move on Jordi Alba. A real world class player at this point, the 23-year-old was fantastic last night as a real driving force and presence in the final third.
Some will point to the slightly dodgy decisions that went in Bayern’s favour, and the refereeing team led by Mr Kassai nearly had as bad a game as Barcelona, but on the balance of play the German champions fully deserved to win big and kill this tie off at half-time.
But all this talk of the end of an era is perhaps premature. Lionel Messi is 25. The much lauded La Masia academy hasn’t closed overnight. The best players in the world will still want to go there this summer.
Bayern are probably the best team in Europe this season. They are now favourites to win the Champions League and with Pep Guardiola, Mario Gotze and one or two more to add to an already formidable squad, they look well set to be very good for the foreseeable future.
Their combination of great technical skill, phenomenal work rate and physical stature made them look like the new super powers of world football last night. They may well be, but this is a team that Arsenal beat 2-0 in Munich just six weeks ago.
Barcelona are done for this season, but we’re not prepared to say that tika-tika has had its day just yet.
