Recent history between Bayern Munich and Barcelona heavily favored the Rekordmeister going into the Champions League clash at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, but Hansi Flick has the LaLiga giants playing an exceptional brand of football this season. A hat-trick from Raphinha and a goal from former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski capped off what was a triumphant display from FC Barcelona, who galloped to a 4-1 win over Vincent Kompany’s side, silencing any and all of the countless banter narratives from recent results that swayed in Bayern’s favor.
Kompany was unfortunate to have lost midfielder Aleksandar Pavlović to injury during the weekend win over VfB Stuttgart and Jamal Musiala could only start from the bench, but it would be rather arrogant to suggest either of the two being involved from the off would have yielded different results.
Barcelona was dominant in a sense of what they did tactically and how they were able to make the most of only 39% possession throughout proceedings, limiting Bayern to only three shots on target, one of which was the Bayern goal scored by Harry Kane in the 18th minute. At the time, that levelled things a 1-1, but the England skipper proved to only provide a mere consolation for what was one way traffic the rest of the way.
After the match, Kane said he felt that Bayern was left to rue not making more of the phases in which he felt Bayern actually had positive momentum, which they were ultimately punished for in the second part of the first half. “Conceding three away from home in the first half wasn’t a great start for us. We had a spell in the first half when we looked really dangerous, but Barcelona played well, and we didn’t exploit the time when we were better. Then we got punished in transitions,” he analyzed (via @iMiaSanMia).
Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
In the grand scheme of things, with the new Champions League format, there is still plenty of time for Bayern to turn their overall fortunes in the competition around and advance to the knockout stages, but Kane feels that have to take the right lessons from the Barcelona loss.
Not forcing this issue is something Kane stressed, which is something away teams can easily succumb to in a raucous atmosphere, especially having gone down early on. We have to go away and learn from this. I think there was a moment for us when we looked dangerous, but perhaps we got a bit carried away trying to play the final ball too quickly, and if we’d used more possession instead of rushing it, we’d have made better chances. But there’s no need to panic — it’s about learning and being better next time,” he stressed.
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