FCB Storm Through
Where to start? On a night in which three of the best teams in Europe, arguably the three best teams in Europe put on two displays of phenomenal football, let's just take a second to stop and admire the current era of football we're living in. Bayern Munich and Juventus played out what has to be remembered as one of the best Champions League ties of all time, finishing 4-2 to Bayern on the night and 6-4 on aggregate, as Barcelona cruised past Arsenal in the end, 3-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate, despite a really decent display from the Gunners in the opening three quarters of the match.
So let's start there, with Arsenal. Because for just over an hour, they put in a really, really good shift. Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck looked very dangerous, they were keeping Barcelona at arms length to an extent, and David Ospina had made a couple of top saves to deny Lionel Messi. The star man for the Gunners however, was Mohamed Elneny, whose thunderous strike ten minutes into the second half meant that at 1-1, Arsenal were just about still in the tie, albeit needing a miracle. And they were playing very well indeed, chances falling for Welbeck and Sanchez to take the lead on the night, and young Iwobi could have had a penalty, although for me it would have been harsh. And it's fair to say that apart from Neymar's opening goal just less than twenty minutes in, after some poor Arsenal defending, Arsenal had done just about everything right.
But this is Barcelona. This is the best team in world football for a reason, and then this happened:
One spectacular volley from Luis Suarez later, Arsenal were done and dusted. And what a spectacular volley it was from Suarez, a finish of the very highest caliber. Suarez is one of the top finishers in world football, if not the very best, and the goal that he scored last night was damn near perfect. It was quality that Arsenal simply don't have. And then Lionel Messi finished it off late on with another delightful little finish to put the gloss on it. Messi now has nine goals against Arsenal, more than any player against a team in Champions League history and this is the fifth season in a row that Arsenal have failed to reach the quarter finals of the UCL. But for Barca, there really is almost no ceiling to this team. To play not even close to their best for the majority of the 180 minutes against Arsenal, but still put 5 goals past them is simply staggering. They are a side that should easily win the Champions League at this rate.
And whilst the best team in Spain put on a show, the best team in Germany and the best team in Italy went head to head, in a game that always looked like being the tie of the round, especially after a thunderous 2-2 draw last time out. But I don't think anyone expected this game to be as incredible as it was. Because what a game it turned out to be. Some really, really poor defending from Bayern, Neuer and Alaba in particular caught out, allowed Paul Pogba to slot into an open goal, giving Juve the lead after five minutes.
Bayern dominated possession, but struggled to created clear cut chances were caught out on the break time and again as Juve played the high press and just short of the half hour mark, Juve scored their second goal, an absolute worldie. Morata picked the ball up in his own third and ran over half the length of the pitch, jinking sensationally past two or three Bayern defenders' limp tackles before sliding a delightful pass into the path of Juan Cuadrado, who did the rest. It really was a run of the very highest quality from Morata, insanely good. And it should have been 3-0 before half time, Neuer with a sensational save to deny Cuadrado his second goal after an excellent run from Pogba.
And things didn't get any better after the break for Bayern, with Pogba pulling the strings, Morata should have put the game to bed with two brilliant chances in the space of a couple of minutes at the start of the second half: one straight at Neuer and the other over the bar.
And Juve were made to pay for their missed chances, as Douglas Costa, easily Bayern's player on the night, popped up with a magical cross, right on a sixpence for Robert Lewandowski to bury the header that got Bayern back in the match with 17 minutes to play. And when Lewandowksi thundered a header against the post from an offside position, it looked like Bayern had missed their opportunity. But in the 91st minute, another wonderful cross, this time by substitute Coman, was headed in by the mercurial Thomas Muller. 2-2 on the night, same as in the first leg, meant that the match went to extra time, with an incredible Bayern comeback not even close to complete.
And it was Bayern's substitutes who won them the match, as Thiago came off the bench to score a stunning third goal, with some truly magical interplay between himself and Muller, before rifling home. And then Coman added the fourth just over a minute later, with a stunning solo goal, cutting in on his left foot and firing home, Robben-esque and, embarrassingly, on loan from Juventus. Oops. Six goals, most of them of the highest quality, this really was a game and a comeback to remember. And Juventus managed to make a spectacular mess of one more late chance to get back into it with four minutes left, as a stunning save from Neuer left Mandzukic a sitter from six yards, and he ballooned over.
This was, by all accounts, a genuinely incredible game of football, played at a blistering tempo by two of the best sides in Europe, and it's just a shame that at the end of it, we couldn't have both of them in the last eight of the competition.
So let's start there, with Arsenal. Because for just over an hour, they put in a really, really good shift. Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck looked very dangerous, they were keeping Barcelona at arms length to an extent, and David Ospina had made a couple of top saves to deny Lionel Messi. The star man for the Gunners however, was Mohamed Elneny, whose thunderous strike ten minutes into the second half meant that at 1-1, Arsenal were just about still in the tie, albeit needing a miracle. And they were playing very well indeed, chances falling for Welbeck and Sanchez to take the lead on the night, and young Iwobi could have had a penalty, although for me it would have been harsh. And it's fair to say that apart from Neymar's opening goal just less than twenty minutes in, after some poor Arsenal defending, Arsenal had done just about everything right.
But this is Barcelona. This is the best team in world football for a reason, and then this happened:
One spectacular volley from Luis Suarez later, Arsenal were done and dusted. And what a spectacular volley it was from Suarez, a finish of the very highest caliber. Suarez is one of the top finishers in world football, if not the very best, and the goal that he scored last night was damn near perfect. It was quality that Arsenal simply don't have. And then Lionel Messi finished it off late on with another delightful little finish to put the gloss on it. Messi now has nine goals against Arsenal, more than any player against a team in Champions League history and this is the fifth season in a row that Arsenal have failed to reach the quarter finals of the UCL. But for Barca, there really is almost no ceiling to this team. To play not even close to their best for the majority of the 180 minutes against Arsenal, but still put 5 goals past them is simply staggering. They are a side that should easily win the Champions League at this rate.And whilst the best team in Spain put on a show, the best team in Germany and the best team in Italy went head to head, in a game that always looked like being the tie of the round, especially after a thunderous 2-2 draw last time out. But I don't think anyone expected this game to be as incredible as it was. Because what a game it turned out to be. Some really, really poor defending from Bayern, Neuer and Alaba in particular caught out, allowed Paul Pogba to slot into an open goal, giving Juve the lead after five minutes.
Bayern dominated possession, but struggled to created clear cut chances were caught out on the break time and again as Juve played the high press and just short of the half hour mark, Juve scored their second goal, an absolute worldie. Morata picked the ball up in his own third and ran over half the length of the pitch, jinking sensationally past two or three Bayern defenders' limp tackles before sliding a delightful pass into the path of Juan Cuadrado, who did the rest. It really was a run of the very highest quality from Morata, insanely good. And it should have been 3-0 before half time, Neuer with a sensational save to deny Cuadrado his second goal after an excellent run from Pogba.
And things didn't get any better after the break for Bayern, with Pogba pulling the strings, Morata should have put the game to bed with two brilliant chances in the space of a couple of minutes at the start of the second half: one straight at Neuer and the other over the bar.
And it was Bayern's substitutes who won them the match, as Thiago came off the bench to score a stunning third goal, with some truly magical interplay between himself and Muller, before rifling home. And then Coman added the fourth just over a minute later, with a stunning solo goal, cutting in on his left foot and firing home, Robben-esque and, embarrassingly, on loan from Juventus. Oops. Six goals, most of them of the highest quality, this really was a game and a comeback to remember. And Juventus managed to make a spectacular mess of one more late chance to get back into it with four minutes left, as a stunning save from Neuer left Mandzukic a sitter from six yards, and he ballooned over.
This was, by all accounts, a genuinely incredible game of football, played at a blistering tempo by two of the best sides in Europe, and it's just a shame that at the end of it, we couldn't have both of them in the last eight of the competition.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Milner at left back. This should be interesting.
- Carrick and Fellaini. No Schweinsteiger or Schneiderlin. Hilarious.
- And some of United's fans remain utterly classless.
- Drinkwater for England. I like this a lot.
- Dilshan does the job for Sri Lanka.
- Kante and Payet for France. I also like this.
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