This will be the game that will separate the men from boys. In the first leg of the semi-finals, the dominant side of European football Barcelona got thrashed 4-0 by Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Wednesday morning.
A couple days before the game, Barcelona’s Dani Alves talked about their upcoming game against Bayern.
“It is a tough but thrilling challenge. We face a European giant, and once again football sets us before the chance to prove that we deserve to play the final,” he said.
Now the question is, does Barcelona deserve its popular image as the best team in the world?
If so, it will have to prove itself in the next game.
This is their biggest defeat since 1997. The second leg of the semi-finals to be held next week, when they face Bayern again, will determine whether their home ground advantage can enable them to overcome Bayern’s strength
Last Wednesday game was definitely testing for both teams but it was Bayern’s strong attacking tactic from Ribery, Muller, Robben and Gomez that gave them the result in the end.
After the game, Robben said they were quite confident that the result would be coming their way.
“We knew we were able to give them a good competition,” Robben said. “This team has dominated Europe over the last five years and if you beat them like this, I think you can be proud,” Robben concluded.
In order to defeat Bayern next week, Barcelona will need to score at least 5 goals. Hopefully Messi will be able to perform for Barcelona this time, as he didn’t seem to be on top of his game on Wednesday morning due to injuries.
It will be very interesting to see what Guardiola’s selection for the second game will be. The return of David Villa, who always links well with Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, will create goal-scoring opportunities.
Another factor to look at is Victor Valdez’s recent underachieving performance. Was this the reason why Bayern managed to score so many goals or does the responsibility for the loss lie with the defenders Pique, Alaba, Alves and Bartra?
Maybe Bayern is just really that good with their attacking play?
After their convincing win against Barcelona, it is safe to predict that Bayern’s line-up for the second round of the semi-finals will stay the same.
Bayern does not focus on holding position, preferring the offensive approach. Interestingly Guardiola early this year, announced his transfer to Bayern at the end of the season.
It will be very intriguing to see how he will work with Bayern given that Barcelona has a completely different style of play. Should Bayern win the title, will Guardiola be able to sustain their success?
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
and they went down once again. 7-0 thats a disgrace!
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Yeah debates and discussions done and dusted. Time to enjoy the 90 minutes!!!
James
Guest
the difference between the newcastle victory and the recent bayern one and the one i feel the article is making is the way in which the victory happened. the complete dominance that bayern had over barcelona was the biggest thing for me. the 4-0 score line was in some ways flattering to barcelona such was the dominance of bayern. barcelona are still a great team and if they come back and win in the second leg it will go down as one of the greatest come backs ever but they are not as brilliant as they used to be and remain a one trick pony. it is a ridiculously awesome one trick but you shut down their central midfield and they dont have any real other options. i do disagree with the article in saying that barcelona will have to score 5 to progress though, can anyone see bayern not scoring at least one goal in the game? 6 goals are the minimum barcelona will have to score. barcelona are not by any means over, they will continue to progress far in all competitions they just are not the obviously better team than everyone else anymore.
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
It's not that long till the game kicks off! Guess we wait and see who the best actually is. Though I consider barca being the best team out there, bayern will though give them a run for their money although its at their home ground
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Borussia Dortmund on the other hand are unpredictable. 2-2 with Shaktar away, 0-0 with Malaga away followed by 3-2 win over Malaga. When we though Real might lose with a small margin or get a draw, Lewandowski scored 4 past the Spanish Giants. In 2009, Real defeated Dortmund 5-0 in Bernabeau with goals from Granero, Kaka, Higuain and Robben. Real Madrid have made a comeback into second leg 4 times in Europe and it can be tricky for the Germans tomorrow. They must find one away goal tomorrow because the Madridistas will be behind the Spanish Giants and they will give their lives for this important game.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Even if Messilona scores 4 which seems tough, Bayern will score 1. I will go in for a 2-1 win for Barcelona and just as the market says,the odd for Barca's win is the maximum followed by Bayern's win and then comes the draw.
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
Strongly agree with you pimbo! The German teams are in great form at the moment.
pimbo
Roar Rookie
Both German teams were clinical and there is no chance Barcelona will get 4 goals or more and also stop Bayern scoring in the second leg. All German final and Bayern will prevail at Wembley. Its not the end of Barcelona, but they are certainly on the decline and with Messi not fully fit are starting to look like a one man team. Bayern are on the ascendancy and can't see any other team in the world beating them by 4 goals right now.
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
without underestimating barcelona, we all know that it is a very strong side and can(if they want) come back from the 4-0. I do agree with you on this one since it's bayern that is their opponents therefore lets say it's obvious that barca might struggle in the second leg as well.
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
guess we wait and see whether he's the best player as everyone says he is.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
I am a fan of Barcelona and will be roaring for a 4-0 win and Messi's extra time goal. But it looks tough. Anyone other than Munich and i probably would have bet that Barcelona could do it. If we look at Bayern Munich, they have lost 1-3 away to Bate Borisov and 0-2 at home to Arsenal this season. They lost 2-3 at home to Bayer Leverkusen. But the only thing common in first 2 losses are that they rested their main players. Beating Barca at Camp Nou is one of the toughest task and maybe Bayern can do it with a 2-1. But the markets and the current form wise, Barcelona winning 4-0 or 5-0 is not the odd at all.But let's hope that Barcelona can make an unbelievable comeback and carry on their momentum to Wembley.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
I am a fan of Barcelona and will be roaring for a 4-0 win and Messi's extra time goal. But it looks tough. Anyone other than Munich and i probably would have bet that Barcelona could do it. If we look at Bayern Munich, they have lost 1-3 away to Bate Borisov and 0-2 at home to Arsenal this season. They lost 2-3 at home to Bayer Leverkusen. But the only thing common in first 2 losses are that they rested their main players. Beating Barca at Camp Nou is one of the toughest task and maybe Bayern can do it with a 2-1. But the markets and the current form wise, Barcelona winning 4-0 or 5-0 is not the odd at all.But let's hope that Barcelona can make an unbelievable comeback and carry on their momentum to Wembley.
shaukat mujtaba
Guest
i think messi is key for the 2nd leg match.if he fires then it is is possible to beat baren.i am thinking about his hatrick.
Jules
Guest
Sure, like the clearly off-side goal scored by Inter in the first-leg and the disallowed winning goal for a non-existent handball by Yaya Toure in the return leg when Barca got done 3-2 on aggregate in the semis a couple of seasons ago. Or the ridiculous sending off of Abidal that left them with 10 men away for 40 minutes away to Chelsea in that infamous game where the same people who blame the referee for United's loss to Real Madrid this year, forget that Barca managed 1-0 away from home after they had a player wrongly sent off at much the same stage of the tie. Should I start on Ibra's off-side goal for PSG this year and Robben's goal after the body check allowed him onto his left foot the other night? Arguably with video refereeing they would have won more, not less over the past few years, but let's just settle for there being arguments on both sides that roughly even out and make it difficult to impugn Barca's success in Europe over the past five years.
Swampy
Guest
Guardiola is NOT the manager anymore... Bayern are just better now. Barca still as good as always - Bayern on fire. Look at their recent results in Bundesliga. Winning most weeks by 5 goals or more. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Dave Webb
Roar Pro
Man U won the league that year. To suggest that it is impossible for barca to beat Bayern 4-0 is wrong. Anything is possible. To suggest that one big defeat signifies the end of barca as a footballing power is disengenuous. The reason that football is the beautiful game is that is can change in a heartbeat. It will be difficult but not beyond the realms of possibility. Write Barcelona off at your peril.
Justin Gracia
Roar Rookie
I dont know whether that is quite true because barca play really well but if that is your observation then thats fine.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
And there's your aggression again. So, people who haven't written articles about football shouldn't be allowed to comment on football? Do you really believe that to be the case? For the record, I have referenced football in a couple of my own articles, but I would have thought that 40-odd years of supporting my home town team (instead of a club I picked on a whim because they won trophies or had the best-looking shirts) might have allowed me to write and speak with a bit of experience, knowledge and authority on the subject. Apparently not. Just rein in your aggression a bit, we're here to share opinions and discuss, not hurl insults.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Hardcore Prawn: Please write some football article first before commenting!
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
I appreciate different opinions and that is the reason why we all debate. Everyone thinks differently but my point is, m saying it again, you can write on a piece of paper that Barcelona with this defense and injury issues cannot defeat Bayern Munich 4-0 on May 1st.