And that’s all from me. Thanks for your tweets, emails and attention. Bye!
Barcelona qualify for the Champions League final
And have four games left this season, the first two in the league followed by Copa del Rey and Champions League finals. They only need to win three of the four (so long as the one they don’t win is in the league) to add three more trophies to their already selfishly overloaded trophy cabinet.
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Final score: Bayern Munich 3-2 Barcelona
90+4 mins: The final whistle sounds, and Barcelona’s qualification for the final is confirmed. A fine, watchable game in which Bayern flirted with humiliation only to decide against it in the end, in circumstances where many would have wilted. Well played, everybody!
90+2 mins: Pedro’s raking pass finds Neymar in all sorts of space, and he runs into the area, works himself a fantastic shooting chance, and then decides to pass across goal to give Messi a tap-in. He overhits the pass, though, and the chance is lost.
90+1 mins: We go careering into stoppage-time, of which there’ll be three minutes. Lewandowski backheels into the penalty area towards Götze, but Dani Alves covers, and clears for a corner.
90 mins: Excellent bouncing and impeccable noisemaking by Bayern’s fans, with their elimination from this competition moments away. Their team is losing, but has performed pretty well, particularly in this half.
87 mins: More subs: Schweinsteiger and Müller are off, Götze and Javi Martínez are on. Three minutes plus stoppages to go, three goals needed. You can do it, lads!*
* You can’t.
85 mins: Pedro is also booked, for fouling Rafinha.
84 mins: Another Bayern shot – Lewandowski, just outside the area, spears wide. It’s been a fine game, very different in this half to the first – the storm before the calm, if you like. Barcelona’s attacking performance over the two legs has been incredible, but in this half they have kept the ball badly and wobbled under the resulting pressure. They’re brilliant, but flawed.
82 mins: Another good Bayern move ends with a bad pass, from Müller, which rumbles out of play.
82 mins: A couple of recent bookings: Lewandowski for dissent, having been upset not to win a corner, and Xabi Alonso for fouling Pedro.
81 mins: Messi sprints with the ball down the right wing, before a combination of Bernat and Benatia take the ball from him. It’s the first time we’ve really seen him in the last half-hour.
79 mins: Bayern continue to push, and Lewandowski’s 20-yarder is deflected wide. The corner lands on Benatia’s head, but he directs it over, and wide.
76 mins: After the latest goal Müller was all roars and fist-pumps and crowd-enthusing arm-gestures. One more goal and, well, who knows? (well, we all know: one more goal and they only need two more goals)
75 mins: Xavi is on the field, and Iniesta is no longer.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 3-2 Barcelona (Müller, 74 mins)
It’s been all Bayern of late, albeit not in a fully-committed way, and their latest move ends with Schweinsteiger getting the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal and laying it back to Müller, who shoots into the bottom-right corner, first time, from 20-odd yards.
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73 mins: Barcelona overhit a through-ball, and Neuer plays it out to the nearest defender with a dainty backheel volley flick. “You have to wonder what Pep could have done different to get more out of this tie,” writes Gabriel Piller. “I think the answer is nothing: with no big guns his attack is blunted and considering the rather haphazard and sluggish defending so far, I can’t see them shutting up shop and playing on the break. Even with Alaba and Dante in the back four. All this ‘Pep isn’t so great a tactician after all’ talk misses out that he’s doing what you’d expect any manager to to in that kind of situation: play to his team’s strengths and hope for the best. I can’t see Guardiola pulling a Mourinho, but, based on what we’ve seen over these last few games, maybe its time he learned.”
71 mins: At the end of a quiet few minutes, most of it spent between the half-way line and the outermost fringes of Barcelona’s penalty area, another substitution, as Rakitic goes off and Jérémy Mathieu replaces him.
68 mins: Bayern take off Lahm and bring on Sebastian Rode, while Schweinsteiger straps on the captain’s armband. “Messi and any two clowns would be contenders for best threesome,” writes Simon MacKaye. “You could put Messi with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones and they’d be one of the best attacking threesomes ever.”
66 mins: Bayern continue to threaten. This time Lewandowski misses a chance to play in Müller and the ball is eventually worked to Lahm, who cuts inside, cuts inside some more and is dispossessed before he can shoot.
64 mins: Rakitic fouls Lewandowski, and is booked for his troubles.
63 mins: Müller comes close again, spinning onto a loose ball in the penalty area but sending it skidding wide.
62 mins: It has been a quieter half so far, as if one side feels its work is done and the other feels its work is undoable, but both sides have dodgy defences and chances continue to fall, frequently to people who don’t often miss them.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 2-2 Barcelona (Lewandowski, 59 mins)
Bravo! That’s very nicely done by Lewandowski, who collects the ball 22 yards out, turns, dances past Mascherano and curls into the corner from the 18-yard line with Ter Stegen for once static.
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57 mins: Neymar is gently touched by Rafinha and collapses, squealing. The referee tells him to get up. “Speaking of great threesomes, how about Real Madrid’s Puskas, Di Stefano and Gento? They won the competition 5 years running.” Yes, a ridiculous front three and probably the closest the world’s ever come to this.
55 mins: Muller receives the ball, back to goal, 40 yards out, and as he does so his marker, Jordi Alba, falls over. He doesn’t quite have the pace to capitalise, and ends up shooting over from the edge of the area.
52 mins: Messi is found in the penalty area, but this time Boateng decides he might deign to block the ball, and does.
50 mins: Another direct pass from Barcelona opens up the home defence, but this time Neuer’s ready to do his thing, rushing from his area to diving-head the ball clear.
49 mins: Nearly a chance for Bayern, but Schweinsteiger’s control lets him down at the vital moment. “I still think Best, Law and Charlton were a better front three,” writes Mark Judd. “Just thought I’d throw that in there.” I never saw them, and am unable to offer much of an opinion, but legendary as they are it’s a bold claim.
48 mins: Barcelona pass the ball about a bit, and then a bit more, and a little bit extra. Eventually Piqué gives it away, but only after quite a lot of passing, almost all of it in their own half.
46 mins: Müller and Jordi Alba tussle in the right corner, and the Spaniard goes down. The referee’s assistant waves his flag for a foul, and the German is incandescent.
Peeeeeeeeep!
46 mins: Mark Clattenburg starts the second half with a manly facial expression and a firm whistle-puff.
The teams are back out for half two, and Pedro is going to replace Suárez.
@Simon_Burnton big time question marks about Pep's tactical astuteness, caught out 2 weeks in row making the same mistake. Genius? No chance
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) May 12, 2015
Looking at the replays of tonight’s two away goals, it’s a story of defensive calamity. Failure to close down Messi gave him too much time to measure his pass to Suárez in the build-up to the first, and the second is just useless, but Neymar took a bit too long over his shot, which would have been blocked had Boateng had any real interest in blocking it, rather than standing vaguely nearby while making himself small and protecting his naughty bits.
@Simon_Burnton Oh my goodness, that picture! Even hugging Suarez is dangerous! #biter pic.twitter.com/qpzIIK1Tle
— Tanya Doroslovac (@teamhamlet) May 12, 2015
He does look he’s preparing for a good old chomp there.
Half time: Bayern Munich 1-2 Barcelona
45+3 mins: Peeeeeeep! says the referee’s whistle, and Bayern Munich head to the dressing room where Pep Guardiola will proceed to show them how they’re going to score five times in the second half, without reply.
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45+2 mins: Mascherano runs out of defence with the ball, and as he gets into Bayern’s half Thiago brings him down, earning himself the game’s first booking.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we roll, and there’ll be two minutes of it, give or take.
45 mins: Xabi Alonso chips the ball into the penalty area, Benatia heads towards goal, and the ball bounces wide.
45 mins: Into the last minute of the half, and Lewandowski falls down near Mascherano and wins a free kick for Bayern, 15 yards outside Barça’s penalty area.
43 mins: Lovely interplay between Neymar and Suárez, to work the ball down the left. It never looked likely to lead to much, and indeed didn’t, but it was still pretty sweet.
40 mins: What a miss from Lewandowski! Thiago carries the ball forward smoothly, and though his shot is blocked it deflects to Lewandowski, who spins and picks his spot. It’s too close to Ter Stegen, who saves (pretty brilliantly, it has to be said, but he shouldn’t have had a chance) and, as the ball rolls towards his line, gets up, gets back and then saves again for good measure!
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38 mins: Another save from Ter Stegen, this time Müller heading a cross from the left towards goal with power, but the keeper tips over.
36 mins: Here’s that Suárez flick, Benatia in fact his victim. I think the technical term is: woof.
Qué control de Suárez #genius pic.twitter.com/qLTuqV6nNO
— FCB (@Emenderk) May 12, 2015
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33 mins: Gorgeous skill on the right wing from Suárez, who flicks the ball over Thiago’s head and sprints clear.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-2 Barcelona (Neymar, 30 mins)
Where were the defence? The ball is punted through from Barcelona’s half and Suárez is suddenly sprinting towards the right side of the penalty area, totally alone, with one defender to his left and Neymar beyond him. He sends the ball over the defender and into the path of the Brazilian, who controls, sets himself, and shoots low past Neuer at the near post.
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29 mins: Well this is just chance central. This time Thiago’s blind pass puts Müller through, but his first-time shot doesn’t really test the keeper.
28 mins: And now Messi has a chance, and forces Neuer into a save. Neymar passes him the ball, and he flicks it up with his left foot and then volleys it goalwards with the same foot, but again it’s too close to the keeper.
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27 mins: Chance for Bayern! Müller brings the ball in from the right and then prods it through to Lewandowski, who has a brief moment to bring the ball under control and spear it goalwards. He does both, but it flies too close to Ter Stegen.
No team has scored 5+ goals on Barca since 03.12.2003 (Málaga 5-1 Barça). That was 675 official matches ago.
— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) May 12, 2015
23 mins: The pity is that Bayern have played well in this first quarter, playing bravely but not suicidally, pressuring their opponents, forcing opportunities. A single-goal first-leg deficit would be catchuppable, two perhaps, but for three everything needed to fall in their favour, and already it has not.
21 mins: So Bayern now need to score another four without reply. I’d love to see it happen, but it’s extraordinarily unlikely.
I'm not going to rattle on about Messi this week, but his weight of pass beggars belief.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 12, 2015
19 mins: Chance for Bayern! Lahm crosses from the right, and Müller’s header was looping right into the top corner before Ter Stegen fingertipped it past the post.
17 mins: That was a beautiful pass from Messi, and an excellent run from Suárez. Neymar’s job was entirely straightforward. And to think there was a point in my life when I thought it was a bit unfair for Newcastle to have Shearer, Ferdinand and Beardsley in the same team.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-1 Barcelona (Neymar, 15 mins)
Well that, surely, is curtains for Bayern. Suárez makes a great burst past the defence and Messi spots him and finds him, allowing the Uruguayan to draw Neuer and slide the ball to Neymar, who has a tap-in.
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13 mins: Then Schweinsteiger finds all sorts of space in midfield, but his 35-yarder flies well over.
12 mins: Sheesh, but Bayern are playing a dangerous game in defence, where there are basically in-built moments of nearly-outnumberedness. On the plus side it allows for swift breaks, and from the last Lewandowski has a half-chance but can’t decide when to shoot, and in the end doesn’t shoot at all.
9 mins: So both sides here are capable of defensive calamity, and Bayern’s six-hour goal drought is over.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-0 Barcelona (Benatia, 8 mins)
Bayern win a corner, from which a totally unmarked Benatia, at the far post, heads the ball just inside the upright, and the home side are back in this!
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7 mins: So if the big question was, will Bayern try their three-on-three defensive strategy again, then the big answer is: yes.
6 mins: Barcelona win a corner, from which Bayern break well, but Müller’s pull-back leads to a shot from Thiago that’s immediately blocked.
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5 mins: Ooooh! Dani Alves chips the ball over Bayern’s defence to the onrushing Rakitic, and his low shot across goal is tipped away by Neuer. The ball ends up on the left wing, from where Messi tries to curl a shot over Neuer and into the far corner, but Neuer saves again!
3 mins: Lahm is the first player to get on the ball in the opposition penalty area, but he runs out of pitch, and is denied the goal kick he demands on the basis that Ter Stegen didn’t actually touch the ball.
Peeeeeeep!
1 min: Mark Clattenburg blows his whistle for the first time, and Barcelona, in their luminous yellow away kit, get the game under way.
The players come out, with fans around the ground holding up coloured foils to create a variety of impressive designs. Actual football is but moments away.
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The players are lining up in the tunnel, preparing for their exit. “Thinking back to both last week and last year’s semi-final with Real Madrid – I may be tempting fate here, but am I alone in thinking that this has the potential (and I stress, potential) to turn really ugly for Bayern here?” wonders Shaun Wilkinson. “In some ways I would like to see that if only because I would be curious about the fall-out of a heavy Bayern defeat. Would that lead to repercussions? Bayern always seem like a club that is so used to success, they turn any failure into a drama of Shakesperean proportions.” Drama and intrigue is pretty much guaranteed here, whatever the outcome.
Anyone else think Bayern Munich’s dressing-room player photos are irredeemably tacky? If the Guardian took a similar approach to locker signage I would be forced to resign.
“The best thing about Messi’s second goal against Bayern was how unhurried he was,” writes Kári Tulinius. “He didn’t sprint, he just jogged with the ball, making the required number of misdirections and unexpected choices to confuse the Bayern defence enough to let him chip the ball gently into the net. It was like watching one of those close up magicians slip a mouse in someone’s shirt pocket.” If a magician slipped a mouse in my pocket I’d slip a fist in his face*.
* I wouldn’t really. I’m a pacifist, and a wimp, and also know that it would be the wrong thing to do. But I would certainly be disgruntled.
Well indeed.
@Simon_Burnton Top Tune from The Mighty Wah but guessing it will be the story of the blues for Bayern.
— Paul Howarth (@TOOFEE) May 12, 2015
Sky earlier posted the video of the Gary Nevilla/Jamie Carragher (and Eddie Howe) analysis of Bayern’s first-leg tactics, which is worth seeing, if you’ve got a minute before the TV coverage starts.
“I’ve been thinking about that second goal ever since last Wednesday,” writes Justin Kavanagh, “and yesterday I was trying to describe it to someone with only a passing interest in the game: How to describe such genius? One hefty Bayern defender sat on his arse on the turf, utterly humbled; the world’s best keeper flailing desperately at the delicately chipped shot; and the sight of another defender scrambling back into embarrassing entanglement, as the ball floats above them all like a gently falling leaf into the corner of the net? It was beyond words really … thank goodness for YouTube!” Well indeed. I kind of feel that a football fan must take every possible opportunity to watch this man play, because one day he’ll be gone and we won’t be able to (although YouTube, I presume, will still be around).
“What, no mention of the classic Patto Banton, Baby Come Back?” asks Eoin. No. No mention of it.
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and they look like this:
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Rafinha, Benatia, Boateng, Bernat; Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Xabi Alonso, Thiago; Müller, Lewandowski.
Subs from: Reina, Dante, Javi Martínez, Pizarro, Götze, Rode, Weiser.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Daniel Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez, Neymar.
Subs from: Bravo, Xavi, Pedro, Rafinha, Bartra, Adriano, Mathieu.
Referee: England’s own Mark Clattenburg and his assistants, Simon Beck and Jake Collin, and his additional assistants, Anthony Taylor and Andre Marriner.
Hello world!
So, Barcelona coming to town, three-goal deficit to overcome. Bayern, full of bullish pre-match noises, are going to go for this. There’s basically no way the next couple of hours aren’t going to be fascinating, even if it’s hard to see the Bavarians getting back into it. Perhaps some music might inspire them …
The best song ever written about comebacks
From which we can conclude that there haven’t been enough good songs written about comebacks. Anyway, this reached No20 in 1984. The haircuts are fabulous, and it’s a fine, soaring melody, surely ripe for a modern smash-hit cover version, with better production and less early-80s nonsense.
The worst song ever written about comebacks
Surely there’s no debating this one. The fine, tasteful, upstanding residents of the United Kingdom made this a No14 smash in 1961. Charlie Drake didn’t even have the excuse of being Australian – the man was as English as Pearly Queens and Coronation chicken.
Simon will be here soon. Here’s Barney Ronay’s match preview to keep you warm while you wait.
Bayern Munich’s season may be listing ominously, with Germany’s champions required to overturn a three-goal deficit to the divine attacking talents of Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final second leg. But if the ship does go down at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night, it will do so with the very public assurance that Pep Guardiola intends to remain at the club for another year.
As denials go this was at the more robust end of the scale. “I have said it 200 million times,” Guardiola told the media in Munich and beyond at his pre-match press conference. “I have one more year on my contract here. Next season I will be here and that’s all there is to it.”
But is it? For all Guardiola’s certainty a bizarre phony war of denial and counter-denial is currently sputtering away at one remove, with some reports going so far as to claim Bayern’s manager has signed a preliminary agreement to move to Manchester City this summer, since denied by Pep-friendly sources closer to home.
As ever in football it seems likely some truth lies on both sides, the rest in the grey areas between. Few things are ever entirely certain in an industry that is uniquely vulnerable to what Harold Wilson described as “events”. Certainly it is hard to shake the feeling that another pride-puncturing defeat at the Allianz Arena to go with last season’s steamrollering by Real Madrid and the cuffing aside at the Camp Nou might add up to something more toxic than just another near miss in Europe.
