Bayern Munich heap further misery on Barcelona

October 27,2022

Bayern Munich continued their recent dominance over Barcelona, handing the Blaugrana a 3-0 defeat on Wednesday

Xavi‘s men entered the game with little more than pride to play for following their elimination from the Champions League after Inter’s sizeable victory over Viktoria Plzen earlier in the day

Already certain of dropping to the Europa League, the home side proved little match for Bayern, who entered the game with an aggregate advantage of 19-4 since the last time Barcelona beat them.

Bayern needed just 10 minutes to open the scoring, Serge Gnabry picking out Sadio Mane behind Hector Bellerin.

The forward nudged the ball to his right while advancing into the penalty area, before chipping an onrushing Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

They doubled their advantage in the 31st minute thanks to a rapid counterattack.

Gnabry was the provider once again, charging through the middle before releasing Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting down the right

The striker made no mistake in sliding home a low finish to continue his recent goalscoring form.

Barcelona thought they were handed a lifeline just before the half when a penalty was given for a foul on Robert Lewandowski, however that decision was reversed following the use of VAR.

Gnabry saw a third ruled out for offside after the restart, but Benjamin Pavard made up for it, slotting home from a corner with the final kick of the game

In the end Barcelona finished the game with no shots on target, a stat that sums up their disappointment on a night that sees them dumped out of the Champions League group stage for the second year running.

Display affected by Inter

With Inter making Barcelona‘s match with Bayern effectively a dead rubber, Barcelona coach Xavi admitted that it did have consequences for his side.

“Today we didn’t compete, we didn’t reach their level,” Xavi said. “They were very good, much better, more intense.

“I’m sure that the elimination before the game affected us psychologically. I’m sure it did

We were drawn in a really difficult group and everything has happened to us in the Champions League. It was very cruel, but today we didn’t compete. On other days we did, but not today.

“I understand that from the outside people talk about failure, but from the inside we have a different analysis. It’s a cruel way to go out of the competition, but if we analyse the other games, I think we deserved more