Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich: Bayern Decimate Hapless Barcelona

Bayern Munich produced a performance for the ages as the German champions justified their tag as favourites to thrash Barcelona 8-2 in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Entering the night as favourites, it took just three minutes for Bayern to live up to the tag.

A free-flowing move picked out Thomas Muller on the edge of the box who played a neat one-two with Robert Lewandowski. Muller latched onto the return ball and calmly slotted home past Marc-Andre ter-Stegen to put Bayern quickly one up.

The scores were levelled mere minutes later in truly remarkable circumstances. Jordi Alba’s tame cross was calamitously mishit by David Alaba, with the resulting ‘clearance’ looping over Manuel Neuer despite getting a hand to the ball.

The frantic action continued as Suarez saw a one-on-one opportunity saved, followed by Lionel Messi hitting the post from what appeared to be a cross.

Bayern retook the lead in the 22nd minute after superb work from Serge Gnabry to dispossess Sergio Roberto in a dangerous area.

Gnabry then fed Ivan Perisic who fired low and hard past the despairing ter-Stegen to restore the Bavarians’ advantage.

See how all the action unfolded between these two European giants via our score centre here.

2-1 soon became 3-1 in a pulsating affair, with Leon Goretzka providing exquisitely for ex-Gunner Serge Gnabry.

A delicate first-time chipped through ball sent Gnabry through on goal, and the German international made no mistake as ter-Stegen was beaten for the third time inside half an hour.

The goals kept on coming as Muller then notched his second of the night. Joshua Kimmich’s cross found Muller in a yard of space after leaving Clement Lenglet for dead, and the clinical forward guided his finish past the despairing Barcelona stopper to make it 4-1.

Following the break, Lewandowski – surprisingly absent from the scoresheet – put the ball in the Barca net, but the goal was ruled out for an offside during the build-up.

The arrears were reduced to two just prior to the hour mark when Luis Suarez’s superb fake shot accounted for Jerome Boateng, with the Uruguayan then tucking home inside Neuer’s far post.

The goals continued to flow as Bayern made it 5-2 through Kimmich, but the true story of the goal was rising left-back Alphonso Davies.

The Canadian international left Nelson Semedo in his wake from a standing start and hared into the box before his neat cut-back left Kimmich with the simple task of prodding home from close range.

Lewandowski finally scored his customary goal late on from close range, but had to serve out an anxious wait as VAR took a lengthy look regarding a potential offside.

The goal stood, and within moments Bayern scored their seventh through Philippe Coutinho.

The Brazilian made it 8-2 with his second of the match minutes later as Barcelona suffered a humiliation on the European stage unlike anything seen in the club’s illustrious history.

-TT