Brilliant Barcelona three steps from heaven

Barcelona remain on course for a second treble as a club, and it’s all down to their scintillating front three.

Wed, 13 May, 2015 - 01:00

Miguel Delaney

Neymar was the one who scored the two goals here, and sealed a place in Berlin long before Bayern Munich went through the inconsequential formality of actually winning this second leg 3-2, but the way the Brazilian, Luis Suarez and — above all — Leo Messi collectively link up could yet win Barca’s first Champions League since 2011.

As for the manager who was in charge of the Catalans’ last victory, Pep Guardiola, he has never looked so far away from claiming a third personal Champions League and a first with Bayern.

“Of course we’re sad, but we can only congratulate Barça. Hopefully they win their fifth European Cup, they deserve it,” a gracious Guardiola said.

The Germans at least avoided a repeat of the thrashing they suffered at the feet of Real Madrid in last season’s semi-final, showing impressive resilience to actually recover some respect and win this game, but they still never got within three goals of winning the tie.

The damage had been done, but not just to Bayern’s chances of reaching Berlin — also to Guardiola’s status.

The details of this are obviously more complicated than his failure, but he has much to consider about how he can return Bayern to the level of this Barcelona, a team that has now very much evolved from the Catalan coach’s own Barcelona from the 2008-11 period.

Luis Enrique’s side may be on the verge of matching that team, which is itself a prospect that felt so unbelievable so recently.

“Our position is marvellous — we need just one win in each competition to win them all,” the Barcelona boss said.

Andres Iniesta added: “We are where we wanted to be but won’t just be happy with that, we want to win titles.”

Barcelona’s success is largely down to their front three.

Because, for all of those angles and elements, the story of this leg boils down to an eight-minute spell in the first half and the exquisite moment it built up to.

It showed why Barca are in the final, why Messi is a level above anyone on the planet, and how this strike trio work so well.

Once Mehdi Benatia had headed home the match’s opening goal on seven minutes, it did feel like this was suddenly a very different game.

It felt like it might be evolving into a proper event, that might be brought to the wire.

Bayern hadn’t just exposed an apparently huge Barca weakness when Benatia headed in straight from Xabi Alonso’s corner with barely a challenge to bother. They had evidently engendered huge belief from that. So had the Allianz Arena.

There was a buzz around the stadium, a new hope and expectation. It was translating into the touches of the Bayern players, who were suddenly first to so many balls.

There a new chaos to the game, that Guardiola’s team clearly felt they could use to only deepen the doubts in Barca’s defence.

Then, Messi eradicated all doubt with his typical assurance, and showed serenity amid the swirl of emotion.

On 15 minutes, he picked out the one possible pass that could have instantly set up a chance. It emphasised the historically impressive sleekness of this thrilling three-man attack.

Suarez took it on so swiftly, before setting up Neymar.

He didn’t just finish the chance, but finished the tie.

Everything after that was mere detail, even if that is a harsh way to describe the brilliance of Neymar’s next goal and the smartness of Bayern’s own face-saving finishes.

It barely needs to be said, but it was again the front three that linked up for Barca’s next on 29 minutes.

Messi played the initial ball, Saurez this time did all the hard work, and Neymar again had the easy finish.

At that point, it threatened to again get humiliating for Bayern and Guardiola for the second Champions League semi-final in a row, but they did rally well.

That was emphasised with the number of supreme saves that Marc-Andre ter Stegen had to make in the Barca goal.

It is a remarkable thing to say about a game that felt this routine for the Catalans, but their goalkeeper still deserved an element of gratitude.

Bayern had the chances to at least make a game of it again, not least when ter Stegen just about prevented a Robert Lewandowski effort from creeping over the line, although the Polish striker should still have scored given the ease of the chance.

Lewandowski went some way to making up for that with a curled finish on 59 minutes, before Thomas Muller followed up with a strike of similar quality on 74.

There was a brief buzz, a brief feeling that Bayern could at least make it someway tense. The reality, however, is that it was nothing more than an inconsequential free-for-all by that point.

Barca’s front three had already produced when it mattered most.

They are on their way to Berlin. Guardiola is left to ponder things in Munich.