Bayern humiliates toothless Barcelona

Thomas Muller scored twice for a rampant Bayern, which led 4-1 after 31 astonishing minutes, as Lionel Messi and his teammates were condemned to a thrashing. Barcelona manager Quique Setien called the drubbing “a tremendously painful defeat” while Bayern head coach Hansi Flick hailed an “outstanding” display from his side.

The scoreline recalled Germany’s 7-1 semi-final win over Brazil in the 2014 World Cup, a game where Flick was on the bench as the national team’s assistant coach. The match began with Bayern grabbing a fourth-minute lead. Muller collected Ivan Perisic’s cross from the left and played a clever one-two with Robert Lewandowski before drilling the ball home. But within three minutes, Barcelona struck back. Clement Lenglet’s long ball found Jordi Alba in space and David Alaba’s attempt to deal with the full-back’s searching cross ended up flying past his own goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Just as Barcelona seemed to have established itself, the German side regained its lead in the 21st minute.

Serge Gnabry fed Perisic on the left and the Croatian glanced up to see his options before drilling past Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Bayern then added a third as Barcelona’s defence was opened up again with ease. Thiago Alcantara was given plenty of space in midfield to find Leon Goretzka, whose superb ball picked out Gnabry.

The winger got behind Lenglet and made no mistake with the finish. It got worse for Barcelona when a low cross from Joshua Kimmich was turned in at the near post by Muller. The Spanish side desperately needed to find a way to shift the momentum after the break and Suarez provided a route back into the game with a fine strike in the 57th minute.

Jordi Alba found Suarez on the edge of the box and the Uruguayan jinked passed Jerome Boateng before blasting home. But, Bayern was in no mood to turn down the heat. Six minutes later, it restored its three-goal advantage, thanks to some outstanding work from teenager Alphonso Davies. The left-back dribbled in from the flank, danced past Nelson Semedo to get to the byline and pulled the ball back to Kimmich, who made it 5-2. Prolific striker Lewandowski, who had scored in his previous seven CL matches, then netted eight minutes from the end.

Substitute Philippe Coutinho, on loan at the German club from Barcelona, floated over a cross from the left, which Lewandowski firmly headed home at the back post. To add insult to the already painful injury, Coutinho later scored two more goals before the end.

RESULT: Quarter-finals:Bayern Munich 8 beat Barcelona 2.