Not with a whimper, but with a boom. Bayern Munich hit Red Stars Belgrade hard with a 9-0 aggregate score, breezed past well drilled Tottenham side by 10-3, saw off Olympioacos by 5-2, humbled Chelsea 7-1 in this season’s Champion League.
For a time, their ruthless run seemed to be nearing a halt when they were drawn against five times champions of the competition but they threw caution to the wind and invariably outclassed Barcelona 8-2 on Friday.
Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabri, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski single goals with Thomas Mueller and Philippe Coutinho braces helped Bayern rag Barcelona to a 10-goal thriller, termed as the most devastating and humiliating defeat in 74 years history of the club.
Barcelona had hope of bringing the Champions League back to Camp Nou since winning it last in 2015. They’ve already had enough of the shocking exits faced in previous years: falling 3-0 Juventus in 2017, bottling a 4-1 lead against Roma in 2018 and also the 3-0 lead against Liverpool in 2019 with Arturo Vidal being the frontier to air his team’s confidence and preparedness a night before the game.
Vidal boasted about Barcelona not being the usual or average teams in Germany which Bayern has always gotten the better of, saying: “They have a lot of confidence but they’re not playing against a Bundesliga team on Friday, they’re up against Barcelona, the best team in the world,” but he got the shocker of his life when things went ballistic at Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica.
Bayern unlocked the tie after four minutes of play through Thomas Muller who then set a record as the player to score five goals in five appearances against Barcelona in the Champions League, a feet former AC Milan striker, Andriy Shevchenko only has attained.
Barcelona returned to square in the seventh minute when David Alaba put the ball into his own net and it was game on for the Catalans but Perisic, Gnabry and another goal from Mueller extended Bavarians lead to 4-1 before half time.
Luis Suarez installed hopes 12 minutes into the second half after slotting home Jordi Alba’s pass, shortly after had Kimmich rendered his goal worthless with a fifth for Bayern. Lewandowski registered the sixth goal before the on loan midfielder from Barcelona, Coutinho came on 15 minutes before full time and scored a brace to ascertain a humiliating scoreline of 8-2.
The loss and exit from the Champions League means for the first time since 2007/08 Barcelona have gone without winning a single laurel in a season. They have conceded eight goals in a game for the first time since losing 8-0 to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey Last 16 in 1946. It is also the first time they have conceded five goals in an European match for the first time since losing 5-4 to Levski Sofia in March 1976 in the UEFA Cup.
The semifinal clashes will now see RB Leipzig take on Paris Saint German on August 18 and August 19 fixture will compel Bayern Munich to battle the winner of Manchester City and Lyon quarterfinal match on Saturday.
This Barcelona team is the worst ever
End of road for Barça… They should just offload Messi and invest the gains on promising youth players
Honestly, I just feel they didn’t bring their A game. It’s like they underrated their opponent
It was almost an unbelievable sight however sumptuous… This is football..no team is invincible.. we move!
Bayern is the new invincible
Bayern are the new invincibles
Bayern are the new invincibles
A very interesting game to watch this period
With Mancity’s defeat yesterday. I’m rooting for Bayern all the way