Here’s what happened on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League, in case you missed it…
The result
• Watch match highlights: Bayern Munich 3, FC Barcelona 2
• Read match report: Barca punches ticket to final
The main story
Bayern should keep the faith: Losing almost always leads to introspection and evaluation, a mad search for the answer to that all-important question: Why? That’s reasonable. It’s healthy, in fact. But sometimes it’s an exercise in futility, and it leads to extreme or over-reaching conclusions, when the simplest answer is staring us in the face.
The temptation here is to suggest Bayern Munich has to make wholesale changes, needs to undergo an overhaul, or replace Pep Guardiola in the off-season. The Bavarians, after all, will end up winning only one trophy this season after bowing out to Barcelona in the semifinals of the Champions League. One trophy. One! It’s not exactly the “down-on-my-luck ‘cause my wife stole my pickup truck, and upped and left me to shack up with my best friend” sob story that they write country music ballads about, now is it?
What’s the answer, then, as to why Bayern lost their semifinal series? It’s simple: they ran into the best team on the planet, buoyed by the marvelous talents of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez—the new “Holy triumvirate” that replaced the old one of Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi as the best trio in world soccer. There’s no shame in losing to the Catalans, especially when you’re missing two influential key starters in Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. Had the Frenchman and Dutch star been in the lineup, things could have been different. It most certainly would have been had they drawn Real Madrid or Juventus in the semis.
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Their absences don’t underline some kind of depth problem with Bayern. Nor does this result suggest Guardiola needs to rethink his tactics, system or style of play. Pep and his team got to this stage, the semifinals of the world’s most prestigious club tournament, without any issues and playing some breathtaking football along the way. They simply had the misfortune of being paired off against the one team in the world that was better them.
There’s no need for drastic changes to be made in Bavaria. Keep the faith with Guardiola and the core of players you have. Some minor tweaking is needed, perhaps. But let’s not lose sight of the fact Bayern was brilliant all the way through this tournament before being steamrolled by the Catalan juggernaut in the Camp Nou last week—and even then, it took Messi and his cohorts more than an hour to break the German champions down.
Goal of the day
Neymar leveled the score in the 15th minute with a beauty. Lionel Messi slid the ball in behind the Bayern defence for Luis Suarez who played a pass across the penalty area for Neymar to finish.
Save of the day
Best moment of the day
The warm, pre-game handshake between opposing coaches Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, former teammates during their playing days at Barcelona.
Tweet of the day
The word is Schadenfreude:
Six pack of stats
• Neymar has scored 11 goals in his last 10 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions.
• For the first time since March/April 2014, Bayern Munich has conceded a goal in five consecutive competitive games.
• Luis Suarez has assisted on eight Neymar goals this season in all competitions, but Neymar has yet to assist on a Suarez goal.
• Bayern Munich has scored seven headed goals in the Champions League this season, more than any other side.
• Only Cristiano Ronaldo (38) and Lionel Messi (26) have more Champions League goals since start of 2012/13 than Robert Lewandowski (22).
• Xavi is the first player to make 150 appearances in the Champions League. Iker Casillas is on 149.
Stats courtesy of Opta
Burning question
3 stars
1) Neymar: For once, the Brazilian emerged from Messi’s shadow, scoring two goals in a man of the match performance.
2) Robert Lewandowski: Scored for Bayern, and posed plenty of problems for Barca with his bright, attacking play up front.
3) Marc-Andre ter Stegen: Made that incredible stop to deny Robert Lewandowski and a number of other fine saves.
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