Barcelona could not make it past their appointment with exposure to the dreaded stimulus at the start of the Champions League and lost at the Camp Nou by 0-3 against Bayern Munich , with two goals from Robert Lewandovski and one from Thomas Müller , the night they were met 13 months from the 2-8 Lisbon anniversary.
Bayern’s physical and tactical power was too much for a Barça team, far from being a fearsome rival against the colossi of Europe, but that put young players on the field of play in the second half who give them hope for the future.
Each team put as headlines six players from the surreal Lisbon night of the 14 August 2020. Ter Stegen, Piqué, Alba, Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto and Frenkie de Jong suffered it with Barça and Neuer, Kimmich, Davies, Goretzka, Müller and Lewandovski enjoyed it with Bayern.
Camp Nou started the game on, singing the Barça anthem a cappella, putting pressure on the rival, going crazy when Memphis went to take corners and singing chants as if, in instead of 40.000 viewers, 100. 000 souls fill the Barça temple.
During the first 20 minutes Barça gave their fans some reasons for revelry , playing Bayern face-to-face, lightly pressing the ball exit German, arriving in the Neuer area timidly and keeping getting Lewandovski, Müller and Sané out of the danger zone.
The very young Jamal Musiala, the substitute for a ‘headdress’ Serge Gnabry, was one of the few who managed to overwhelm the Barça defense in the first bars, but there was always some help to avoid greater evils.
But reality little by little was imposed and Sané had the first clear chance of the meeting. In the minute 19, a volley from the German player forced Ter Stegen to shine, who rejected the ball between his left hand and his face, to prevent Bayern from already screaming a goal. Musiala could also have done it eight minutes later, but Piqué threw himself to the ground in time.
The soft reply came on the next play, when Ronald Araujo sent a deflection a Memphis header to center from a set piece. The influence of Luuk de Jong, although despondent, was noted by the constant lateral balls that sought a reference in attack that many times did not exist.
Fortune, one of the Barça hopes of the night, did not ally with Barça and a shot from the edge of the Müller area in the minute 34 touched Eric Garcia enough to catch Ter Stegen off foot and become 0-1. A flurry of resignation swept the Camp Nou.
Koeman had rebuilt the losses up front with the 3-5-2 scheme, which incidentally served as an excuse for reinforce the midfield in order to short-circuit the muscle of the German colossus, a chimera. Sergi Roberto and Jordi Alba acted as lanes in an eleven in which Eric Garcia acted as third center back.
The second half started with a serious Barca warning. Sergio Busquets, in an unprecedented way, tried his luck in the minute 49 from the edge of the area and the Bayern defense deflected the attempt enough so that the Camp Nou did not celebrate the tie. Instead, what he celebrated two minutes later was a magical stop by Ter Stegen with his right foot shot by Sané.
The Barça goalkeeper could do nothing in the 56 when Lewandovski , on target and in the face of Araujo’s passivity, put the tip to make the 0 -2 taking advantage of the rejection of the stick to a distant shot from Musiala.
It was the demonstration that logic was Bayern’s best weapon, so Koeman bet on being brave and going off script. Very early, in the 59, he entered to ‘Gavi’ and to Yusuf Demir by Sergio Busquets and a whistled Sergi Roberto, a victim of his low level of play and of being the only captain who has not yet signed the salary cut.
➦ Today he nailed a DOUBLE to FC Barcelona.
➦ Carry 10 goals in 6 games this season with Bayern Munich.
➦ Registered 3 goals and 3 assists in 3 games on the September FIFA date with Poland.
➦ Carry 47 goals in 37 games played in the year 2021.SAVAGERY. pic.twitter.com/RJNH8rD8HZ— Undefeated (@InvictosSomos) September 14, 2021
These two additions, together With the return of Coutinho to the pitch after almost nine months, they encouraged Koeman’s team, who managed to live in the Bayern field for the first time in the game .
Precisely a thread of the Brazilian footballer was the best occasion of the match for the Catalans, that they still had what to see Jordi Alba relapse from his muscular discomfort and how Lewandovski made it 0-3 in the 85 after getting rid of Piqué inside the area.
Barça did not lose the opening match of the Champions League since the course 550 – 1998 , when under Louis Van Gaal they lost 3-2 to Newcastle United. Since then, the Catalans had reaped 17 wins and 5 draws. The streak ended.
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