Bayern Munich beat Barcelona 3-0 at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night to advance to the Champions League round of 16 as group winners.
Xavi Hernandez’s side went into the match knowing they already had no chance of reaching the knockout round for the second year in a row after Internazionale beat Viktoria Plzen 4-0 in the early window on Monday.
First-half goals from Sadio Mane and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and stoppage-time header from Benjamin Pavard saw Bayern clinch top spot in Group C on 15 points with one game to play, while Inter Milan finish second. Barcelona, who will finish third regardless of results on the final matchday, are headed for the Europa League.
Wednesday’s results are another setback for the Catalan club and could prove costlier than last season as the team went on a spending spree in the summer to boost their squad in the hope of recovering some of that money with a deep run in European competition.
Rapid reaction
1. Barcelona play flat after Champions League exit sealed
With Inter Milan’s win over Viktoria Plzen earlier on Wednesday, Barcelona knew their Champions League hopes were over for another season and they played like a team in mourning at times against Bayern. Despite Xavi Hernandez’s insistence ahead of the game that this was a chance to show Barca can compete on the biggest stage, they once again failed to deliver against one of Europe’s best, as was the case in the recent Clasico defeat to Real Madrid.
Barca will and already have bemoaned missed chances in Munich, refereeing decisions in Milan and individual errors in the 3-3 draw against Inter, but the fact of the matter is they have not been good enough across their five matches in the Champions League season. That they have just four points is a reflection of that.
You cannot defend as they did against Bayern. The ease with which Sadio Mane and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting found the net will have angered Xavi. It felt as if Bayern could have gone up a few more gears, too. Only a last-ditch block from Hector Bellerin and a fine save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen kept out a third before the break. Serge Gnabry, the creator of all three goals, had another ruled out for offside before an unmarked Benjamin Pavard added the third from a stoppage-time set-play.
Barca, meanwhile, for all their passing, huffing and puffing, never really tested Bayern’s stand-in goalkeeper Sven Ulreich. The closest they came to a goal was an overturned penalty for a Matthijs de Ligt challenge on Robert Lewandowski, who was once again forced to endure a painful night against the side he left for €45 million in the summer.
2. Focus to win Europa League, LaLiga for Barcelona
Barca invested over €150m in the squad in the summer after selling club assets with the objective of reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. With that now not possible, how do they regroup from here?
The main focus now becomes LaLiga. They have started well, despite that defeat to Madrid, and are just three points off the top after 11 games and just one defeat. With a much-improved squad, the league’s top scorer in Lewandowski and an emerging crop of young talent, led by Pedri and Gavi, they should run Carlo Ancelotti’s side close.
However, they are certainly not favourites at the moment and Xavi has even said if he does not win a trophy this season, he knows he could be replaced. That leaves the Europa League, where they will be the favourites, although they know the perils of Europe’s secondary competition having fallen unexpectedly to Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinal last season. Then there is the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Supercopa. It is not what they dreamed of in the summer when they unveiled Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, but there is still plenty of room for improvement on last season’s trophy-less campaign.
There does seem to be some patience from the supporters. Having club legend Xavi as the figurehead of the project helps and an average attendance of over 80,000 at Camp Nou this season shows there is a connection. There were 84,016 for the Bayern loss and those that stayed until the end did not stop signing.
3. Bayern Munich show why they’re a benchmark
Bayern are one of the benchmarks for where Xavi wants to take his Barca side. They are also the team Barca must be most sick of facing. This was their sixth win in a row against the Catalans, a run which stretches back to 2015 and includes an 8-2 and three 3-0s, and their 11th in 15 official meetings.
Their performance at Camp Nou was as professional as it comes. With their place in the last-16 already assured, they still played as if there was something riding on the game as they wrapped up top spot ahead of their final game at home to Inter, where they will look to make it six wins from six from what some described as the competition’s hardest group.
This win was all the more impressive considering they were without Manuel Neuer, Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sane through injury, while Thomas Muller was only deemed fit for a second-half cameo. Still, with talent like Mane, Gnabry and Jamal Musiala, they remain one of the teams to be feared in Europe, even if Union Berlin are still keeping them off the top of the Bundesliga for now