Barcelona Vs. Bayern post-match analysis

Bayern Munich played Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League group stage match at Camp Nou on Tuesday evening. The last meeting between Bayern and Barcelona on 14th August 2020 is there in the history books of football. Barcelona lost 2-8 to Bayern in the quarter-finals of the Champions League at home. It was the biggest ever defeat that the Spanish club had in the past 75 years. That night haunts Barcelona to date. A lot happened after that match. Messi faxed his resignation papers, Quique Setién the head Barca coach was sacked and Ronald Koeman was brought in as the new manager. Multiple star players like Suarez, Rakitic, and Semedo were sold. A lot changed after that match.

Fast forward to yesterday’s match, Barcelona played Bayern again, but this time without their talisman Messi. Koeman started with a 3-5-2 with the Netherland duo Memphis Depay and Luuk De Jong as strikers. Bayern on the other played a 4-1-4-1 with Lewandowski as their lone striker.

The game started out slow but gradually Barcelona picked up the pace and started creating chances. The best chance they got was from a free-kick which was headed wide by Ronald Araújo in the 10th minute. Bayern after a couple of minutes pressed the accelerator hard and attacked with full force. In the 16th minute, Bavarians created their game with beautiful one-touch passes which ultimately gave them the result. Thomas Muller shot the ball with power from outside the box which got a significant deflection from Eric Garcia’s back and went straight into the net. Ter Stegen couldn’t do anything about it. Bayern took the lead and the first half ended with Barcelona 0- 1 Bayern.

In the second half, Nagelsmann’s men took total control of their defense. They marked the Barcelona players well and didn’t even allow them to enter into the penalty box. Barcelona tried hard in the 2nd half by shooting a couple of shots, those too were not on target. Barcelona had 0 shots on target out of the total shots they took. Bayern on the other hand absolutely dominated the second half. Lewandowski scored an easy brace as Barca’s defense failed to stop the menacing Bavarian attack The game ended Barcelona 3-0 Bayern.

It was yet another humiliating Barcelona defeat at Camp Nou. Much was expected from the new Barca coach but it seems like nothing is working for Barcelona right now. Koeman needs to bring in the motivation in the team along with the right tactics to at least challenge a team like Bayern in the Champions League. Koeman at the moment has got everything wrong and needs to work a lot on his team and players.