Bayern Munich blow away Barcelona in group stage finale

A snowy night in Munich was the grounds of the final matchday of the UEFA Champions League, seeing FC Bayern Munich host FC Barcelona. In the fight for qualification for the round of 16, Barcelona came in need of a win, but Bayern were too strong at home and easily cruised through this 3-0 victory.

With playing behind closed doors, the match started off rather slow. The opening 30 minutes saw just one shot for the German giants, however, they remained dominant in every category of the game.

The excitement finally kicked off in the 34th minute with the game’s opening goal coming from Thomas Muller. The ball was played forward to Robert Lewandowski who had all the space in the world. No Barcelona players applied any pressure to the striker, in which he leisurely strolled into the box waiting for Muller to make his run, and lifted an inch-perfect cross over the defenders to find the head of Muller for the goal. Barcelona’s Araujo da Silva attempted the goal-line clearance, but not before the ball had fully crossed the line.

This goal became Thomas Muller’s 50th Champions League goal and gave him the glory of being crowned the player to score the most goals against Barcelona in Champions League history (eight goals in seven games).

Just nine minutes later, Leroy Sane fired a rocket from range to bag Bayern’s second goal. Played into the middle of the pitch by Kingsley Coman, Sane found the time and space to set up his shot-  a brilliant knuckleball that wobbled right around Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The half ended with a brilliant piece of end-to-end play from the goal scorer Sane. Ousmane Dembele used his immense pace to race past the line of Bayern defenders, but Sane’s excellent backtracking quickly brought his run to an end.

After his great first-half performance, the second half opened with a massive disappointment from Sane where he missed an absolute sitter of a goal. A pass back from Coman found Sane in front of a wide-open goal, but his shot managed to hit the keeper as he was laying on the ground and was able to easily wrap it up.

The only real shining moment of the second half was Bayern’s third goal coming at the 62nd minute. For much of the game, Alphonso Davies was left all alone on the left side of the pitch, where it was at this time that he took his opportunity to make his charge at goal. Beating two Barcelona defenders with a pleasant piece of skill, Davies slid the ball across goal find the youngster Jamal Musiala for a simple finish.

After this comfortable 3-0 win, Bayern Munich will now look to continue their venture to the Champions League final once the round of 16 commences in February.