This is gonna be a long season for Barcelona. Josep Maria Bartomeu and his team drove the Catalonian giants to the brink of disaster, and after financial crisis, the team is in the personnel crisis as well. Maybe the likes of Sergio Roberto, Depay, Garcia and De Jong are OK for La Liga, but against stronger opposition, Ronald Koeman will be defeated every time. Barcelona was wasteful tonight against Bayern, and the Catalonians registered 0 shots on target, which means they would not win against last placed La Liga team Alaves, yet alone the Bavarians: Barcelona – Bayern 0:2.The German teams are well known for their philosophy – always play 100% all 90 minutes, but tonight, even they saw that toothless Barca is not worth it, and they played just enough for the comfortable win. Muller (with a bit of luck) and Lewandowski (with experience) scored two unanswered points and killed any hope of the home crowd, that maybe, just maybe this team is not that bad as it looks. But it is.7 – Thomas Müller has scored more goals against Barcelona than any other player in European Cup/Champions League history (seven goals in six appearances). Thorn. pic.twitter.com/LwH7OwePcx— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 14, 2021 Barcelona did try to put the pressure early, and Koeman’s men were all over the place in the first 20 minutes. They attacked, they pressured Bayern’s defenders in their own half, but after about 25 minutes, Bayern took over and Barca never recovered. Thomas Muller, a guy who scores regularly against Barca took a shot in the 34th minute, and scored rather luckily, since the ball was deflected off Garcia and took another direction to trick ter Stegen. After the goal, the Bavarians had another chance through Sane, but ter Stegen had one handed save to deny his fellow German. And just when the second half started, and Barcelona tried to be as aggressive as in the first 20 minutes of the match, young Muisala,who surprisingly played on the right side this evening, took a great shot, the ball hit the crossbar and went straight to Lewandowski, who was unmarked, and when the Robert has the ball, goal are bound to happen: 2-0.Koeman’s response? He brought in a 17 year old kid Gavi, who, logically, couldn’t turn things around. Bayern are far too serious and strong opponent to do something like that, but the Dutchman just didn’t feel he could turn things around with other reserves on the bench, so he turned to the kids. After 2-0, even Barca slowed things down, with 8-2 thrashing still in their mind. But in the end, Lewandowski had to score another goal for the final 3-0. A routine victory for Bayern and a punch of reality for Barcelona.CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – GROUP STAGE – ROUND 1Young Boys – Man.Utd. 2-1 (0-1)/Ngamaleu 66, Siebatcheu 90+5 – Ronaldo 13/Sevilla – Salzburg 1-1 (1-1)/Rakitic (p) 42 – Susic 21/Barcelona – Bayern 0-3 (0-1)/Muller 34, Lewandowski 56,85/Dynamo Kyiv – Benfica 0-0 (0-0)Villareal – Atalanta 2-2 (1-1)/Trigueros 39, Danjuma 73 – Freuler 6, Gosens 83/Lille – Wolfsburg 0-0Chelsea – Zenit 1-0 (0-0)/Lukaku 69/Malmo – Juventus 0-3 (0-1)/Sandro 23, Dybala 45, Morata 45+1/WEDNESDAY:Wed 19.45: (5.40) Besiktas (4.00) Dortmund (1.62)Wed 19.45: (4.30) Sheriff Tiraspol (3.50) Shakhtar (1.88)Wed 22.00: (13.0) Club Brugge (6.50) PSG (1.22)Wed 22.00: (1.35) Man.City (5.30) RB Leipzig (8.00)Wed 22.00: (1.65) Atl.Madrid (3.60) Porto (6.00)Wed 22.00: (1.60) Liverpool (4.00) Milan (5.70)Wed 22.00: (2.85) Sporting (3.30) Ajax (2.50)Wed 22.00: (2.55) Inter (3.30) Real Madrid (2.75)
