The champions league plays host to two of Europe’s biggest clubs once again tonight as familiar heavyweight rivals Barcelona and Bayern clash at Camp Nou. The visitors are already through to the last 16 for the 15th year in a row and can seal top spot in Group C with a game to spare if they win again here, while a failure from Inter Milan to beat Viktoria Plzen in the early kick-off would have also guaranteed first place.
That match at the San Siro also had huge stakes for Barcelona, who, after their last-gasp 3-3 draw with Inter on matchday four, needed a massive favour from Plzen to avoid being eliminated from contention. However, the Czechs have lost every game in the competition to date and duly went down 4-0 in Milan, meaning Xavi’ side are out before they’ve even taken to the pitch as the Europa League beckons once more.
Hector Bellerin, Marcos Alonso and Franck Kessie all come in for Barca tonight, with Sadio Mane returning for Bayern along with Noussair Mazraoui.
A heavily-rotated Bayern Munich side comfortably saw off Barcelona at Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.
Goals from Sadio Mane, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Benjamin Pavard were enough for Bayern as they heaped more misery on a Barca side who suffered an embarrassing group stage exit thanks to Inter’s earlier win over Vitkoria Plzen.
To compound Barcelona’s misery following their Champions League exit, Bayern took the lead at Camp Nou inside the opening 10 minutes. Serge Gnabry’s wonderful drilled through ball into the path of Mane culminated in the ex-Liverpool man rushing into the penalty are before coolly chipping over Marc-Ander ter Stegen.
On the half hour mark it was 2-0, thanks to Choupo-Moting. The perennial substitute, starting this game as it was a dead rubber and as some sort of unintentional indictment of this Barca team, was played through on the right of the penalty by Gnabry and, after controlling with his first touch, fired the ball low and into the bottom right corner of the goal with his second.
Barca thought they were gifted a lifeline in the final minute of the first half when the referee pointed to the spot after Matthijs de Ligt tackled Robert Lewandowski when the forward was clean through on goal. Following a VAR check however, the decision was overturned as De Ligt was adjudged to have just got his toe on the ball.
Gnabry continued to be a thorn in Barca’s side in the second half, latching onto a great ball over the top of the defence from Joshua Kimmich before curling past ter Stegen. Fortunately for La Blaugrana this time however, the forward was deemed to have been offside.
The home side would dominate possession thereafter without really doing anything with it. It would take until the 70th minute for the home side to create any sort of a chance, with Ansu Fati drilling wide of the near post after beating a few defenders on the left of the penalty area.
With essentially the final kick of the game, substitute Pavard made it 3-0, stealing in at the back post to side-foot into the net.
