UEFA Champions League Semi-Final Bayern Munich v/s Barcelona-2nd Leg Preview

The atmosphere at the Nou Camp was electric last week. Thousands of supporters witnessed a vintage Messi performance and more-over a classic Barcelona performance. It's very rare you see a team come to Nou Camp and dominate possession as well as passing and yet lose the game. Home coming for their very own Pep Guardiola who as former Barcelona coach won many honors for the Spanish side would surely try to forget this night where he got humbled by his old team and most importantly from Messi.

The game came up to life in the 75th minute on-wards before that both teams were attacking but losing the ball at the final third of the field. But in the final quarter of the match the little Argentinian had enough and decided to do what he does best score in big games and rightly so he did scoring a belter from outside the box beating Manuel Neuer at the near post, the German should have done better but he must have seen it late with all the traffic in front of him. The goal from Messi acted as a catalyst for what was to follow. With the Argentinean in one of those moods scored another one a delightful lob past Neuer before embarrassing Boateng. The scenes at Nou Camp were euphoric, i'm sure even the Bayern supporters would have appreciated that goal. But at the dying moments of the game Bayern playing a high line trying to get an away goal payed the price when the man of the moment assisted the Brazilian Neymar who had no defenders in sight just Neuer calmly slotted the ball past him and maybe made the second leg irrelevant. The brace from Messi not only helped Barcelona to a convincing victory but also made him the all time Champions League goal scorer for the moment with 77 goals as Cristiano Ronaldo is on 76.

The stage is all set at the Allianz Arena for the mighty Germans to show their fighting spirit. They suffered a similar same fate in the Quarter-Finals first leg away in Portugal to Porto losing 3-1 and then destroying the Portuguese side 6-1 at home. But this is a different team who can punish Bayern on the counter and whose passing is much more fluid and accurate. Bayern should be vary of this as they have no option but to attack from the first minute on-wards but must make sure that they do not get blind sided on the counter and pay the price. Even though it may impossible to come back from this but many including me believe that the German giants have enough quality in them to stage an inspiring comeback. Barcelona would be aware of that and they themselves cannot take this tie lightly or they could pay the price.

The Players to watch out for in Barcelona is the three musketeers: Neymar, Messi and Suarez. These three have scored a 111 goals in all games for Barcelona this season between them.
The Players to watch out for in Bayern Munich is Lewandowski , Muller and Thiago.



These were the Match statistics for the First Leg:

Injury woes for the Germans with Robben, Ribery and Alaba all ruled with injuries it could have been a different story if these three were fit. Sebastian Rode is doubtful for the clash. Luis Enrique on the other hand has a full squad with Mathieu returning to training and most likely would start the game.

Probable line-ups:
Bayern:  Neuer; Rafinha, Boateng, Benatia, Lahm, Javi Martinez,  Alonso, Thiago Alcántara; Müller, Lewandowski, Götze.

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Alves, Piqué, Mathieu, Alba; Rakitić, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez, Neymar.

Barcelona in their domestic league won convincingly this weekend against Moyes's Real Sociedad. And with Real Madrid drawing against Valencia, it seems more certain now that Barcelona would be crowned champions of Spain this term, were as Bayern not what they would have expected losing at home to Augsburg potentially dampening the confidence of the Bayern players too.

 The only time a three goal deficit has been overturned in the Champions League was way back in 2004 by Deportivo.

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