Barcelona 4-1 Bayern Munich: Raphinha stars for Barca
Barcelona 4-1 Bayern Munich: Raphinha stars for Barca. FC Barcelona secured their first victory over Bayern Munich in nine years with a ruthlessly performance in the Champions League on Wednesday night, as Hansi Flick got the better of his former club.
The Catalans had endured six straight defeats at the hands of the Bavarian outfit since 2015, including an infamous 8-2 humiliation when Flick was at the Bayern helm in 2020. But that run came to an emphatic end at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys when both sides met tonight.
Raphinha delivered a devastatingly efficient hat-trick, with Barcelona ultimately converting all four of their shots on target. Harry Kane did equalise in the first half, but it was Robert Lewandowski who put the hosts back in front, before Raphinha’s further decisive blows wrapped up the scoring inside an hour.
The result puts Barcelona within touching distance of the all-important top eight in the overall standings. But a struggling Bayern have now lost two of their three fixtures and sit as low as 23rd.
How did the game unfold?
Some fans were yet to even take their seats after kick-off when Barca got off to the dream start, a move that started with Inaki Pena in goal and swept from back to front in a flash. Fermin Lopez played the final ball around the corner to the space in front of Raphinha, although Joshua Kimmich was poorly positioned and then messed up the chance to cut the pass out.
But Raphinha had ice in his veins as he stared down Manuel Neuer, took the ball past the Bayern goalkeeper and slid it into the net as Kimmich desperately chased back.
That only seemed to awaken Bayern and Kane quickly had the visitors level, or so he thought, heading in from Raphael Guerreiro’s cross. But VAR spotted that the England captain’s knee and toes were offside, chalking off the would-be equaliser.
Still, after a couple of further chances, Bayern did draw level after 18 minutes anyway. This time there was no offside, first as Michael Olise switched play from right to left to find Serge Gnabry, with Kane then waiting in the middle to volley the German winger’s cross beyond the reach of Pena.
Bayern were firmly dominating possession and Barcelona’s incredibly high defensive line threatened to be their undoing when Guerreiro burst into the box but couldn’t direct Gnabry’s cross goalward. So when the hosts then retook the lead, it was somewhat against the run of play.
There was a pause while the goal was subject to a VAR check, but a potential foul on Kim Min-jae as Lopez put an arm on his back was deemed acceptable. The Barcelona midfielder then flicked the ball past the advancing Neuer and Lewandowski closed into finish the chance in front of an open net.
Raphinha’s second of the night on the stroke of half-time only fed the notion of it being a smash and grab Barcelona performance as Bayern frustration began to show. It was just their third shot on target of the night but produced a third goal, taking in a cross-field pass from Marc Casado, driving forward, cutting onto his right foot and unleashing an unstoppable strike into the far top corner.
A spell of concerted Bayern pressure early in the second half had a similar outcome to the first half, another Barcelona goal. It was Raphinha’s hat-trick strike, burying the ball in the far bottom corner after taking a pass from Lamine Yamal on his chest and racing away from the defenders.
With an even bigger mountain to climb, that was the killer blow that knocked the wind out of Bayern’s sails and creativity really dried up – perhaps not helped by Vincent Kompany replacing both wingers and his ‘number 10’ in a single swing of the axe an hour in.
By the final quarter of the game, Barcelona were comfortably cruising and momentum from both sides largely petered out as they accepted their respective fate.
