BARCELONA // Six hours before they took the field at Camp Nou, Pep Guardiola led his Bayern Munich players to the vantage point of Tibidabo, offering a wondrous view of Barcelona down to the Mediterranean.
It is close to Guardiola’s family home and the city looks serene from 400 metres up, but any tranquillity was gone once Bayern Munich took to the field against Barcelona in their Uefa Champions League semi-final first leg – and not only because they started with three defenders.
The German champions held Barcelona for 77 minutes before succumbing to two late Lionel Messi goals and an even later Neymar effort in a 3-0 defeat.
The game was underway before the huge 98,000 crowd realised Guardiola had sent his team out with a three-man defence. Rafinha, Jerome Boateng and Medhi Benatia were tasked with marking Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
It was bold but not brilliant, and Guardiola, who barely left the edge of his technical area, called for a switch back to a more conventional back four after 16 relentless minutes.
Ten metres away, Luis Enrique was equally animated, gesticulating, ordering and no doubt appreciated a huge ‘Luis Enrique!’ chant in a stadium where Guardiola’s ghost looms large.
The average ticket for non-members cost €140 (Dh585), a high price but one for an absorbing, frenetic, breathless game.
The attacking instinct of both teams made for great entertainment, with heavy tackles and sublime skills.
Barca were dominant at home, but only in terms of chances created – 11 to one in the first half. Few teams come to Camp Nou and share the possession, but Bayern did so in a goalless first half.
Messi, in his 100th Champions League game, was clear through on Manuel Neuer’s goal after 11 minutes, but the German goalkeeper stopped his shot with his foot.
At the other end, Bastian Schweinsteiger crossed for Robert Lewandowski. Unlike David Alaba, Holger Badstuber, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Sebastian Rode, he made it back from injury.
Barcelona were only missing Jeremy Mathieu.
Luis Suarez rode a 14th-minute challenge to cross for Neymar, whose effort hit Rafinha to spin wide. Lewandowski was punching the floor three minutes later after failing to connect with a low Thomas Muller cross.
There were cheers when former Real Madrid player Xabi Alonso was booked in the 34th minute for what appeared to be a Boateng foul on Messi – the first of six yellow cards.
Bayern needed Neuer at his best. He saved brilliantly from a Dani Alves volley after 39 minutes, and the Brazilian was a frequent contributor to the Catalans’ attack.
He put ball through the legs of former teammate Thiago Alcantara as a breathless first half, in which both goalkeepers played almost as outfield players, closed.
The second could not possibly match it and largely did not.
The pace settled and only Messi, so often a match-winner, could change it when his 77th-minute drive beat Neuer.
The Argentine added a second three minutes later, running onto a pass and spinning past Boateng before chipping Neuer.
Guardiola called Messi “unstoppable” pre-match.
He knew Barcelona well, and the best player in the world even better.
By the time of Barca’s third, when Messi set Neymar free to place the ball past Neuer in stoppage time, the home fans had unfurled a ‘Next Stop Berlin’ flag. Bayern’s players will need to do more than climb a mountain to keep that from happening.
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