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Modern football is perhaps seeing the best trio partnership ever seen in the slickly and dynamic MSN, Messi-Suarez-Neymar partnership. With 112 goals already between these three super stars this season, the trio combined again wonderfully to set up two more goals for Neymar on the night and fire Barcelona to the final. Neymar now has 37 goals in all competition this season and has scored in his last seven consecutive matches. As it seems, there is no stopping this fantastic Barcelona side that is motivated by a possible treble winning season (the UCL final in Berlin is in the kitten, another La liga is up for the taking with just a point needed from two matches to go and the Spanish King’s Cup final beckons). They continue to extend the horizon, and the ease with which they do it leaves even critics speechless.
Luis Enrique has mastered Guardiola’s attacking football philosophy and in turn created a new, craftily attractive, flexible and fully primed Barca side and has finally heralded a new dawn at Nou Camp. This time last year under former coach Martino, the team was almost tearing apart with gloom and apprehension in the air, but it does seem as if this new Barcelona team under Luis Enrique can go all the way. Last night against Bayern Munich, they did what is needed to be done and ensured they squeezed through into the final of this year’s UEFA Champions League, UCL.
Both teams named the same starting XIs from the first leg last week. Both teams got to business from the very 1st minute of the match, with Bayern aiming to make a decisive statement following last week’s capitulation in Spain. Barcelona were soon to make a statement of their own, perhaps reminding their hosts that they too meant business with Raktic and Neymar forcing Neuer to fine saves in the 4th and 5th minutes.
Finally, a breakthrough came in the 7th minute; poor defending by Barcelona defenders allowed Bayern draw the first blood of the night through a beautiful free header by Mehdi Benatia following a Xavi Alonso corner; the goal sent the stadium into a rapturous mood as they urged they team to build on the momentum and kill off the game. But their excitement was not to last long as MSN stepped up for their first major act of the night; in the 14th minute, Messi literally slit open the Bayern defense with a through pass that beat the offside trap to connect with Suarez who then simply laid a neat pass to Neymer for a simple tap in for Barcelona’s first goal of the night. That goal was literally from the textbook and it leaves you wondering what Bayern defenders were thinking to have committed such a mistake so early in the match; that beauty of a goal by Neymar almost immediately quietened the home fans.
Bayern still trying to revive their hopes for the final regrouped and resumed firing on all cylinders. Muller would later force a fine save from the Barcelona keeper, Ter Stegen in the 19th minute with a trickish header, moments later, Muller combined well with Lewandowski in the 27th minute who then fired straight at the keeper for yet another easy save. Neuer was called into action by Messi who forced him to make a timely save to keep the host in the game. At the other end, a good foot work by Thiago Alcantara in the 29th minute easily beat Barca defenders as he then found space to make a fine pass to Thomas Muller who could only manage a poor shot.
Bayern’s endless forward push further exposed their weakness at the back and they were soon made to pay dearly for their over indulgence of the night as Messi yet again finds Suarez in the 29th minute with a simple header, Suarez then raced towards the Bayern goal as fast as he could and finds Neymar inside the box, somehow Neymar was allowed enough time to chest down the ball and fire a shot into the far right of the net to beat Neuer for his second goal of the night. A keeper of Neuer’s status should have done better but in nights like this, the rot in the Bayern team spared no one.
From that moment forward, it was a point of no return for Bayern as Barcelona’s two goals had effectively put the game beyond them. It soon became an all-Barcelona affair, they seemed to be having as much fun as they could in a training session until Marc-Andre Ter Stegen force more saves from a Bastian Schweinsteiger in the 36th minute forced and a controversial line clearance in the 39th minute from a Lewandowski low range shot (the referee did not signal that a goal had been scored and play continued; following a similar incident in Arsenal’s recent league loss on Monday night, this is another valid argument as to why UEFA should follow the FA’s example for a more rigorous application of the goal line technology). The first half thus ended Bayern 1-2 Barcelona.
Pedro came in for the fantastic Suarez at the start of the second half who was rested perhaps with the next (and potentially decisive) league game in mind should the proposed strike in the Spanish La liga not go ahead. The second half began on a cautious note for both teams with Bayern still hoping to get back into the game, save a face and perhaps, do the impossible and score the five extra goals needed to overhaul their deficit against this brilliant Barcelona side except that doing that on the night (considering Bayern abysmal performance and poor goal record in their last five matches in all competitions in comparison to Barcelona’s brilliant strides in all competitions this season) was almost an impossible task. In the end, Bayern could only manage two more goals on the night.
In the 58th minute, Lewandowski scored a beautiful equalizer for the hosts after he dummied both Mascherano and the Barcelona keeper, Ter Stegen to shoot into the far right of the net. And then in the 72th minute, Bayern’s spirited display of the second half paid off again as Thomas Muller stepped up to score the winner with a well-placed shot from outside the box. As expected, in the 74th minute, the French defender Mathieu was quickly brought in for the workaholic but tired Rakitic to contain the threat that the resurgent Bayern team.
Suffice to say that Bayern came out strongly in the second half, perhaps a reminder of what it’d have been had they arrived earlier at the party, in the end their spirited second display was too little too late. A horrendous second half capitulation during last week’s first leg in Spain which saw them concede three late goals without reply in the final quarter of the game was their major undoing. Bayern redeemed themselves in the second late in Germany with a 3-2 win over Barcelona but crashed on goal difference (final aggregate: Bayern 3-5 Barcelona).
At last, Bayern found the winning formula again and stopped the rot of four consecutive losses; they were probably mindful of not having a repeat of the last time something close to that happened in 1977 when they lost eight consecutive matches. Bayern might have faltered when it mattered most this season, however, it is to be hoped that come next season, they will yet attempt to re-write the wrongs and get back to winning ways.
Barcelona on their part in spite of their first defeat since February and conceding for the first time after 10 hours of play, match into the final of the 2014/2015 UCL in Berlin, Germany with their heads held high having given a good account of themselves in both legs of the encounter and with a historic treble-winning season very much still within their reach. The next few weeks in the season would definitely be interesting to see whether or not that those landmarks for them become reality… For the love of football.
Idowu Olagoke KUNLERE
