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With 15-ish minutes to go, Bayern Munich were holding Barcelona comfortably in a mirror-like Champions League semi-final at Camp Nou.
Then Messi scored two trademark goals, and in a mere 20 minutes Barcelona secured their place in the final.
As I mentioned here on The Roar a week ago, the idea behind these two matches would be the contrast of Barcelona’s forward line and Bayern’s midfield passers.
That in the end wasn’t the whole truth, as Barcelona’s midfield passing game has never traditionally been too shabby either.
Most of the night the main feature was the nerveless possession technique of the 22 players. They would not be hustled into hurried decision-making, always found their mark with passes, and when Messi briefly got into the game in the first half he could find little, quick passes with teammates in the tiniest of spaces.
Both teams also closed opposition space well, which is a benchmark at this level.
Bayern appeared to be gambling with death in the first fifteen minutes. They had put in place a sparse line of staggered defenders (some of them second-string) to take on Messi, Suarez and Neymar, backing their midfield possession game to come through.
There was consequently space around and behind those, as opposed to the cauldron in the midfield. Suarez was put through by a simple headed pass but Manuel Neuer, the Goalkeeper of the Future™, did the splits to incredibly keep out the shot to the far corner.
Gradually Bayern were able to keep the play away from their defence. Barca pressed but most of the first half was about the speed of the passing lines and angles among the two teams. Barca versus Bayern is almost a de facto final inside a semi, and in a way we are blessed that they contest two matches rather than just the one final.
Without Arjen Robben, who has been Bayern’s centre-forward this year in a new development, Bayern were light to non-existent as a goal threat, despite their pressing and passing. They had only one deflected shot on target all night.
Their one actual chance came in the first half when Thomas Muller from the right tricked Jordi Alba and rolled what should have been a goal to Robert Lewandowski in the centre, but he could not connect.
Neuer appeared unbeatable for most of the match, which makes the 0-3 loss a real blink and you missed it phenomenon. He saved from Dani Alves when through before halftime and then in his patented manner cut off Neymar thirty metres from goal when he was through in the second half.
And yet… call me crazy, but I thought Bayern were holding Barcelona well in the second half, and would be headed to Germany as the superior side, in a manner of speaking.
After halftime they spent half an hour on the ball, pushing on attack and keeping Barcelona to a minimum. Suarez was mostly ineffectual.
But if these were mirror teams, the funhouse mirror revealed one team of passers with no forward line and one with the three best forwards on Earth, give or take. There had been no gaps for them, but an unsettled minute of play gave Messi an accidental few metres of space on 77 minutes and from outside the area he drilled a dipping, Messi-esque bullet to the near side of the net.
The Great One had opened up gaps where there had not been any. There was space for Barcelona for the rest of the match as the first goal caused Bayern to lose their shape.
Three minutes later Rakitic put Messi through with World Cup German defender Jerome Boateng guarding the inside. Messi turned him inside out, classically leaving him on his derriere (literally, Boateng fell down), advanced on the outside and chipped the ball over Neuer and in.
From nothing, suddenly it was game over. Sort of.
An away goal would have saved the day for Bayern, but they could not get into their box or line up a shot at all in the ten minutes left. They were too desperate in the last minute all pushing forward, and the Dream Trio strung together Bayern’s deathblow.
Behind the halfway line Suarez squeezed the ball to Messi just before Bayern’s defence took him out. The referee sensibly paid advantage, however, and Messi had a simple pass to Neymar overlapping past the last defender.
Through on Neuer and with time to decide, Neymar buried a low roll past the keeper.
Bayern manager Pep Guardiola will probably take another hammering over his perceived inability to be the man to take Bayern all the way, although their current injury crisis is unfortunate. Nominally the team to beat when he arrived as coach in 2013, under Guardiola Bayern have now taken three high-profile Champions League thrashings within a year.
This recent one, three goals down to Barca, appears irreversible.
May 6, 2015
Barcelona 3 (Messi 77, 80, Neymar 90+4)
Bayern Munich 0Barcelona: ter Stegan; Daniel Alves, Pique, Mascherano (Bartra 89), Jordi Alba; Rakitic (Xavi 82), Busquets, Iniesta (Rafinha 87); Messi, Suarez, Neymar
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Rafinha, Benatia, Boateng, Bernat; Xabi Alonso; Muller (Goetze 81), Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Thiago; Lewandowski
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