The Champions League duel between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, played on Wednesday at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, bore huge significance for both teams due to the fact that they both had grounds to make up after suffering relatively surprising defeats at the hands of AS Monaco and Aston Villa, respectively. Another loss would’ve arguably raised concerns about round-of-16 qualification for either, and as it happened, it’s Bayern who will likely have started worrying.
Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona less than a minute into the match, and having one goal ruled out for offside, Harry Kane equalized for Bayern in the 18th minute. Robert Lewandowski dealt a blow to his former club by reinstating Barcelona’s lead in the 36th minute, and Raphinha proved he was on fire as he struck twice more to land a hat-trick, in the 45th and 56th.
The teams
Both coaches arranged their respective teams in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
For Barcelona, Inaki Pena was in goal, picked ahead of Wojciech Szczesny in the absence of Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Pau Cubarsi paired up with Inigo Martinez in the heart of defence, with Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde covering the defensive flanks. Pedri and Marc Casado were tasked with controlling the middle of the park while Raphinha, Fermin Lopez and Lamine Yamal supported Lewandowski upfront.
For Bayern, Manuel Neuer stood between the posts. Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano formed the centre-back duo, with Alphonso Davies on the left and Raphael Guerreiro on the right. Joshua Kimmich paired up with Joao Palhinha in midfield. Kane led the line in attack, with Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller and Michael Olise in support.
The game and slight controversy
Barcelona obviously got off to a dream start, getting ahead after only 58 seconds. As Lewandowski dropped deep to receive the ball, dragging Kim out of position, Pedri picked it up and employed Lopez, whose positional interchange with Raphinha resembled a castling move in chess, as he moved to the left and the Brazilian winger went inside. It pulled Upamecano out of position and confused Kimmich, and with Kim already out of the game, it was easy for Lopez to slip it through for Raphinha, who now had a one-0n-one situation with Neuer, went around the German veteran goalkeeper and fired into the gaping net. It was a brilliant piece of attacking play from Barcelona, helped by a bit of naive defending from Bayern.
But Bayern obviously wouldn’t have six Champions League trophies in their cabinet if they had a reputation for melting away after conceding early. They struck back very quickly and exposed Barcelona’s defence in their turn, and though the Catalans were saved by Kane uncharacteristically not staying onside to score in the 10th minute, the England captain got his equalizer eight minutes later.
As Kim sent a long ball towards Olise on the right, the former Crystal Palace winger managed to catch the Barcelona defence off guard by quickly switching play to engage Gnabry on the left, and Gnabry’s cross found Kane who did what he does best from six yards.
In the 26th minute, another fine play from Barcelona enabled Lewandowski to shoot from just outside the box, but the shot trickled wide of the post. And 10 minutes later, there came an arguably controversial moment when Lewandowski did reinstate the home side’s lead.
Yamal sent a long ball over Bayern’s back line to find Lopez, and it seemed at first Kim had misjudged its flight and failed to make what should’ve been an easy clearance. As both Upamecano and Neuer came rushing towards Lopez, the Barcelona midfielder squared it deftly for Lewandowski who simply doesn’t miss from there.
However, several Bayern players protested to referee Slavko Vincic of Slovenia, and a slow-motion footage revealed that Lopez had pushed Kim in the back while the Korean defender was in the air, preventing from reacting properly. There was a VAR check and to the surprise of most among those who had the privilege of seeing the slow-motion footage, the goal was allowed to stand.
Raphinha
The general feeling is that Bayern were seriously aggrieved there, and that their tumble downhill began in that moment. On the other hand, nothing should be taken away from the attacking performance of Raphinha, or indeed, the whole Barcelona team. Another nine minutes later, Cubarsi’s lovely diagonal found the man of the moment, and he turned Guerreiro inside-out before firing a curler into the far corner to make it 3-1 before halftime.
Bayern pushed to reduce the deficit after the break, but apart from one not very good attempt from Palhinha, they never got close to it before Raphinha struck again in the 56th minute. The Blaugrana exploded into a counterattack after a Bayern corner, and it was Pedri and Yamal who combined again to set the former Leeds winger up to complete his hat-trick.
As for Bayern, Kingsley Coman came off the bench to ruin a fantastic chance as fellow substitute Leroy Sane put it on a platter for him on the stroke of 65 minutes, and that was about it when it comes to their efforts to get back into the game.
Raphinha now has 17 goal contributions in 13 matches across all competitions this season for Barcelona, consisting of nine goals and eight assists. It seems the sight of some Barcelona fans holding the shirt with his number – 11 – and the name of Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams over the summer, really hit a nerve and sparked a fierce response from the 27-year-old.
The aftermath
Bayern have now suffered two defeats from three Champions League matches and currently sit in 23rd place in the table of the new competition format, with three points. It’s obviously way too early to be making any conclusions about knockout-stage progress, but the situation leaves the window for potential future errors very narrow for the Bavarians.
But their immediate concern will be to avoid dropping any points as they travel to face Bochum later this week, if they wish to keep their place at the top of the Bundesliga table.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are 10th with six points, more comfortable in that aspect, and this important triumph is set to hold them in good spirits as they prepare for the El Clasico that awaits at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday evening.
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