FC Barcelona won the first leg against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League semi-final round with a score of 3-0. With Wednesday’s victory, Barcelona are on the brink of reaching their eighth European Cup showpiece but will have to face Bayern Munich one more time next Tuesday.
It took until the second half for Lionel Messi to score two goals in the span of three minutes before creating a late third for Neymar in stoppage time. With the two goals that he scored today, Messi was able to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal of 76 goals in the UEFA competition. Luis Suarez also had a great night at Camp Nou as he was able to assist Neymar with the goal and get his team the win. Robert Lewandowski and Thiago Alcantara got their starting place in the Bayern lineup as they were doubtful for Wednesday’s match but Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery’s presence were missing.
It was a great first half as Barcelona held the upper hand and Bayern had cause to be grateful to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who was unstoppable at the goalkeeping position. He saved one on ones with Suarez and Dani Alves to keep the game scoreless at the break. Lewandowski had a chance to get his team in the lead as well when a cross from Thomas Muller landed in the danger zone but as he went for the ball he slipped and let the chance go.
It was on the 77′ minute that Messi, who was making his 100th European appearance, scored the first goal for the Catalan team. Dani Alves robbed Juan Bernat of the ball on the right side of the field and found Messi. Messi was able to find space outside the box and fired the ball inside Neuer’s near post to make it a 1-0 game.
Three minutes later, Messi collected a pass from Ivan Rakitic and left behind Jerome Boateng, who lost his balance and fell to the ground. He went on to chip it over Neuer to make it a 2-0 game.
All hopes disappeared in the closing seconds for Bayern, who were desperately looking to get on the scoreboard. Messi, who got a ball from Suarez as he went down, sent Neymar clear of the visiting team. Neuer and Neymar went one on one but the goalkeeper had no answer. Neymar fired the ball past Neuer to make it 3-0 lead and eventual final score.
Pep Guardiola will have to find a way around his former team coming next Tuesday night at the Allianz Arena and see if they can make a comeback like they did with FC Porto. It will not be easy for the German team though, as Barcelona will not let themselves get too confident with the win and try to find the back of the net a few more times next week. Barcelona may also be looking to get revenge on Bayern for that 7-0 aggregate loss they received back in the 2013 semi-finals.
