There are challenges that cannot wait for jovial teams with a thirst for victory like Barça. The Blaugrana were more insatiable and ruthless than Bayern itself in a match so extraordinary that the Montjuïc cauldron was about to be lit. The stadium shook on a tremendous night for Barcelona. The collective play was as admirable as the performance of Raphinha, author of a hat trickafter the Barcelona fans had gone up to four consecutive games without scoring a goal against the Bavarian champion. The emergence of the Brazilian has been as surprising as that of Barça.
4
Iñaki Peña, Iñigo Martínez, Pau Cubarsí, Jules Koundé, Alejandro Balde, Marc Casadó, Fermín López (Frenkie de Jong, min. 60), Lamine Yamal (Ansu Fati, min. 84), Raphinha (Dani Olmo, min. 75) , Pedri (Gavi, min. 84) and Robert Lewandowski (Pau Víctor, min. 84)
1
Manuel Neuer, Dayot Upamecano, Alphonso Davies, Kim Min-Jae, Raphaël Guerreiro (Konrad Laimer, min. 84), Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller (Jamal Musiala, min. 59), Michael Olise (Leroy Sané, min. 59), Serge Gnabry (Kingsley Coman, min. 59), João Palhinha (Leon Goretzka, min. 59) and Harry Kane
Goals
1-0 min. 0: Raphinha. 1-1 min. 17: Kane. 2-1 min. 35: Lewandowski. 3-1 min. 44: Raphinha. 4-1 min. 55: Raphinha
Referee Slavko Vincic
yellow cards
Joshua Kimmich (min. 26), Leon Goretzka (min. 89)
At times Barça seemed like the better Bayern and Bayern at times reminded us of the harmless Barça. The last time the Blaugrana defeated the Germans, after 4-0 in 2009, was in 2015, the year they won the Champions League, when Messi boned Boateng. They had been the only two victories from 11 defeats, some as bloody as that of Lisbon, 2-8. Bayern’s coach in that match is called Hansi Flick. Around his figure, Barça has built a team in a state of grace, leader of the League on the way to the Bernabéu and capable of humiliating and killing the German ogre in Montjuïc.
Barça is a German team that plays with the ball from La Masia. He could very well compete in the Bundesliga due to his sense of rhythm, ability to press very high and defend forward, for always being facing the rival goal, prepared to score goals and compete with the best Bayern. Kompany’s team knew very well the value of Flick’s Barcelona affront. Both are coaches who have recently arrived to two teams that attract each other, share football convictions and have the same taste for adventure and risk for the luck of the public that fills stadiums like Montjuïc.
This explains why the 1-0 reached 58 seconds after a ball played by Pedri and Fermín to uncheck Raphinha. The Brazilian controlled the ball that Kimmich failed to intercept and ran into the open field toward Neuer. The driving was as accurate as the dribbling of the goalkeeper to the clamor of the Barça fans. Bayern did not even flinch, aware that the play was caused by an error in reducing space, and it took them very little time to tie with a very slanted shot by Kane following a pass from Gnabry. A goal that could be seen coming after the VAR had already annulled a goal by the Bayern striker.
The Germans had camped with an overwhelming personality in the Barça field. They did not let go of the leather and their changes of orientation misaligned the offside line drawn by the Catalans, who were very demanding defensively and far from Neuer. Bayern’s proposal suffocated Barça. The blaugrana, however, knew how to resist and suffer, they did not leave the game, and little by little they gained the field and the ball to put the contest on the divide and activate Lamine. The game was compacted in the midfield and the teams were waiting for a filtered pass from their midfielders before the suspense of Montjuïc.
They did not pay attention to those who were absent but to those present, especially in irreducible footballers like Fermín, the midfielder who made up a successful lineup, and Casadó. Lamine kicked the ball for Fermín and the midfielder gained position over Kim Min to save Neuer’s exit with a touch and offer the goal to Lewandowski. Bayern was petrified to understand that there was a push from Fermín to Kim. He wanted and could not recover the script that worked so well until 1-1 and conceded a third goal before the break after an excellent action by Casadó for Raphinha. The midfielder crossed the ball with force and precision from the right wing to the side for Raphinha to receive and the Brazilian broke Guerreiro to unleash a cross shot that was impossible for Neuer. The effectiveness of the Brazilian and Barça left Bayern with their mouths open. Although the team’s fourth and Raphinha’s third was similar to the first and second, due to the unmarking, the control and the shot, it had a terminal effect on the match: Bayern’s impotence was as manifest as Barça’s security and conviction. Nobody even noticed Peña and the communion of the team and the fans exploded in a dazzling final party in Montjuïc.
