Barcelona booked their place in the Champions League final on Tuesday, despite suffering a 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. The Bavarians put in a spirited performance, but ultimately their Catalan adversary's3-0 win in the reverse leg was enough to see them through 5-3 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich vs. Barcelona: Final score 3-2, Barça reach final despite defeat
Barça reached the Champions League final despite defeat to Bayern on the night.
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Bayern headed into the second leg with a massive mountain to climb after their loss at the Camp Nou, though seemed up for the challenge. They were the better of the two sides in the opening exchanges, and it took them just seven minutes to break the deadlock. Medhi Benatia slipped away from Sergio Busquets to head a Xabi Alonso corner into the back of the net, and rekindle a tie that had looked all but over.
Unfortunately for the neutral, however, Bayern weren't nearly as good at the back as they were going forward. Their lead lasted just eight minutes, with Neymar capitalising on some glorious build-up play by Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez to tap an equaliser into the back of the net after a quarter-of-an-hour. That goal meant that Bayern needed to score four more without reply to progress.
To their credit, the Bavarians didn't look overwhelmed by their task, with Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller both failing to make the most of some intricate build-up play when in the box.
But, once again, Bayern were undermined by their terrible defending, with Benatia caught high up the field on a flick-on after half an hour. It bought Suárez the space he needed to dispatch the ball calmly inside Manuel Neuer’s near post, sealing his brace and killing the tie.
From then to the halftime whistle, the game’s tempo began to drop, and Barça seemed to take their foot off the gas. That afforded Lewandowski a tremendous chance from inside the box with five minutes remaining, though Marc-André ter Stegen made a remarkable one-handed stop to keep his side in front.
He was powerless to do the same 15 minutes after the restart, when Lewandowski finally made amends for his earlier profligacy with a delightful finish from the edge of the penalty area. Bayern were level on the night, but still needed four to win the tie.
The hosts were in the ascendancy and saw comfortably more of the ball, and they found a third goal with 15 minutes remaining. Some excellent passing culminated in Müller finding the space to curl a great low shot into the bottom corner from just outside the box, as the Bavarians reduced their deficit even further.
However, while it was something for the home crowd to cheer, it was never going to be anything more than that. Sure enough, Barça cruised home for a 5-3 aggregate win.
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Bernat, Benatia, Boateng, Rafinha; Alonso; Schweinsteiger (Martínez 87’), Thiago, Lahm (Rode 68’); Müller (Götze 87’), Lewandowski.
Goals: Benatia (7’), Lewandowski (59’), Müller (74’)
Barcelona: ter Stegen; Alba, Mascherano, Piqué, Alves; Iniesta (Xavi 75’), Busquets, Rakitić (Mathieu 72’); Neymar, Suárez (Pedro 46’), Messi.
Goals: Neymar (15’, 29’).
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