Bayern took a massive step towards champions league final with their first leg 4-0 win over Barca at home.
The Bavarian giants again reminded everyone that
they are a force to be reckoned
with by playing the toothless
Blaugrana off the pitch. Thomas Muller opened the scoring
with a close-range header, and
put the second on a plate for
Mario Gomez minutes into the
second half. Muller would controversially play a
role in Arjen Robben's goal after
appearing to foul Jordi Alba off
the ball, before tapping in the
fourth himself with eight minutes
remaining to round off the biggest-ever margin of victory in
a Champions League semi-final.
Gomez replaced the suspended
Mario Mandzukic up front for the
hosts, while for the visitors, Marc
Bartra partnered Gerard Pique in defence with Carles Puyol and
Javier Mascherano injured. Bayern could have been ahead as
early as the fourth minute.
Robben exchanged passes with
Gomez, and it took the
outstretched legs of Victor Valdes
to deny the Dutch winger from point-blank range. Barca were winning the
possession battle, but it was the
Bavarian side who controlled the
opening exchanges. Javi
Martinez’s tumble in the box was
correctly ignored by the referee, who was forced into a bigger no-
call when Philipp Lahm’s shot
struck Pique’s elbow. The Barca defender headed wide
at the other end from a corner,
but it was an isolated scare from
the blunted Catalans, and with 25
minutes on the clock, Bayern
made their superiority count. A corner was worked to Robben,
whose cross was flicked on by
Dante, andMuller was first to the ball, sneaking a header past
Valdes at the near post. But Dante had to be alert to
prevent a quick response from
Barca, poking away Dani Alves’
cross at full stretch from the
unmarked Lionel Messi, in a
dangerous position where an own-goal could have easily
occurred. Gomez then picked up the first
yellow card of the game for
barging into Messi, and he was
quickly followed into the book by
Bartra and Martinez for
challenges on Muller and Andres Iniesta either side of the interval. But any hopes that Barca had for
the half-time break to revitalize
them were dashed only four
minutes after the restart, when
Bayern exposed their soft centre
once again to go two goals ahead. Just like the first goal, Robben’s
delivery was met by a Bayern
head, with Muller guiding the ball
towards the goal line, where Gomez was waiting to gleefully bundle the ball home, albeit from
an unnoticed offside position. The Bundesliga side were simply
dominating, and the match
threatened to get ugly very fast
for Barca had Muller and Franck
Ribery been more accurate when
presented with the chance to pick their spot from great
shooting positions. But the third goal was always on
the cards, and it duly arrived
with 17 minutes remaining, albeit
in contentious circumstances.
Muller’s off-the-ball block on Alba
went unheeded, and with the full- back out of the way,Robben curled sublimely into the far
corner. And in the 82nd minute, it was
4-0. David Alaba’s overlapping
run down the left ended with a
low cross into the six-yard area,
whereMuller was waiting to turn into the back of the net to
leave the second leg at Camp Nou
as little more than a formality,
and finish off an epic 24 hours for
Bayern.
Topic: Bayern 4-0 Barca: Bayern exposed Barca; trampled on tiki-taka (Read 1850 times)
