Messi lifts the ball over Neuer’s head to score Barça’s second goal
It took Barça 77 minutes before they were able to finally break into Bayern’s defense and score the first goal of the match. Dani Alves provided the very important pass to Messi who didn’t waste the opportunity to strike the ball inside Neuer’s near post and score the opening goal of the match with little over 13 minutes of play left. Three minutes later Rakitic found Messi again deep inside Bayern territory. The Argentinian once again didn’t disappoint and scored another goal to double Barça’s lead. Little Messi was pure magic as he rounded Boateng in the penalty area to chip an onward rushing Manuel Neuer. Four minutes past extra time and Neymar sealed Bayern’s fate by scoring the third goal for the Catalans.
The match ended 3-0 in favour of the Blaugrana. Bayern now need to score at least three more goals than Barcelona in the return leg in Munich. In the quarterfinals, the Bavarians were able to bounce back following a 3-0 defeat by Porto at home by destroying the Portuguese side at the Allianz Arena 6-0. But this is Barcelona, not Porto and everybody knows the big difference between the two clubs. The chances of that happening to Barca is very little and almost equal to nill. Many would agree that Barça are now on the verge of another finals appearance in the UEFA Champions League.
Before the match, there were fears among the Barca ranks about the possible outcome of this match because of Pep Guardiola, the former manager of Barcelona is now in charge of Bayern. Many feared that he’ll be able to use his deep knowledge of the Barcelona squad to Bayern’s advantage. But in this occasion, he was forced to make some bold experimentation at the formation of the Bayern squad because of the numerous injuries in the squad.
The players whom he usually depended on like Robben, Ribery and Alaba were all absent here because of injuries. Barcelona took full advantage of this and Luis Suarez feasted up front nearly score a goal in some occasions during the match. Barcelona were clearly the aggressive side during the entire match, but it took them 77 minutes to break down Bayern’s defense and score a goal. After that, chaos reign on the ranks of the Bavarians and Barcelona didn’t waste the opportunity to finally close down the match.
Bayern might still miss some of their key players on the second leg of the series. With this and a 3-0 lead now on Barcelona’s shoulders, their chances of making it to the finals have definitely got bigger.
Watch Messi dribble past Boateng and leave him on the floor
