Bayern Munich 4 Barcelona 0
Bavaria battered Catalonia last night.
Roy Keane summed it up.
Keane said, “One of the most complete team performances I\’ve seen in a long time.â€
On Barcelona, Lee Dixon said, “Their talisman didn\’t look fit to me.â€
I’ve never seen this Bayern team play better.
And I\’ve never seen Messi play worse.
No surprise to see that Michael Laudrup called it exactly right. He knows more than us.
Clearly, Lionel Messi wasn\’t fit and shouldn\’t have played.
Having started, Messi should have been removed at half-time. If Tito Vilanova wasn\’t strong enough to take Messi off, Xavi should have taken him off.
What\’s the point of bringing on David Villa after 82 minutes when you\’re 4-0 down and out of the Champions League? Stupid.
At 7pm we knew Messi was starting but by 8.30 he\’d hardly had a kick.
Barcelona, having made eight changes on Saturday, should have been fresh enough to make a game of it.
But they were outplayed and outmuscled by a bigger, tougher, more organised Bayern side.
By 15 minutes it was clear that Bayern would score the first goal.
In 16, a Lahm shot was blocked by a deliberate elbow from Pique but the ref gave a corner.
By now I was wondering whether to have a bet in play.
It was obvious that Bayern were about to score.
I sprinted upstairs to my office and put the radio commentary on and backed Bayern to Score The Next Goal as they won a corner on the right wing and I waited for my bet to register and thought,”I’ve blown it!”
I watched the seconds tick down from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 to BET PLACED and two seconds later Muller scored.
It was the Thomas Muller match, really.
He had two goals and two assists & one of the assists was illegal.
The second goal, by Mario Gomez, was offside after another corner.
The third “goal†by Robben also stood.
Muller is one of the meanest forward players I\’ve ever seen. A wiry, sneaky, spiky assassin- and not just in the penalty area.
At 2-0, he bodychecked left back Jordi Alba in the box to allow Robben to make it 3-0 and then Muller stabbed in at the near post in 82, converting a whipped cross by left back Alaba, after a very strong, fast attack down the left flank.
Schweinsteiger had carried the ball 40 yards before finding Ribery, who slipped the ball through for the overlapping left back.
That was the best goal of the game.
First 20 minutes, Barca played keep-ball, as if they had come for a draw.
If Mandzukic had played it might have been 7-0.
The suspended Croatian striker will be available for the second leg next week.
Two years ago, when Barcelona played Manchester United at Wembley, they didn\’t concede one corner. Last night Bayern had about 12 corners and scored from two.
Teamwork 4 Player Power 0.
Barcelona are a one-style team who have enjoyed spectacular success in the Xavi-Messi-Iniesta years and ITVs Adrian Chiles might have been premature when he asked, “Is this the end of an era?â€
However, with Bayern already signing Mario Gotze, it might be the start of a period of European domination by Muller, Mandzukic and company.
As a global brand, Manchester United are by far the biggest but if this Bayern team improves under Pep Guardiola\’s coaching they could compete with United on five continents.
With a Latin superstar and two or three Champions Leagues, Bayern could become mega.
And somehow, even if that happens, I don\’t think Munich would ever become like Chelsea or Barcelona, a club that gets into trouble because they allow the team to pick the team .
Tonight it\’s Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now the biggest star left in the Champions League and I don\’t think Cristiano will let me down tonight.