Smashing Barcelona in CL quarter-final
Before last season, Barcelona and Bayern Munich had come up against each other in knockouts twice. Die Roten clinched emphatic aggregate score in 2013, while Barcelona hammered Bayern in 2015. There was no cagey affair in these four games, so expectations were high when Die Roten were set to face Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
The German Champions got the better of Barcelona, but no one expected it to be a historic and embarrassing result for the Spanish side. Rekordmeister scored eight goals in this game, inflicting the biggest defeat on Barcelona in Europe. The most impressive aspect of this performance was that Bayern had chances to make even worse.
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Flick always wants his team to play on the front foot and maintain a consistent level of intensity through aggressive pressing. This group of players managed to execute his plan to perfection against the Spanish club.
The German manager was also impressive with his game management. The introduction of Philippe Coutinho gave them further control in the final third. The Brazilian ended up with two goals and one assist in a short cameo. Defensively, the team gave Lionel Messi very little space to trouble Manuel Neuer. Considering the quality of opposition, it was the best performance under Flick.