Messi as a spectator: Leon Goretzka and Bayern performed magic against Barcelona
Photo: Imago Images / Peter Schatz
On Sunday, the preparations for the semi-finals of the Champions League continued for Bayern, and now the Munich team have to deal with two opponents who were not intended. After the memorable 8: 2 (4: 1) against FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals on Friday evening, they had adjusted to a reunion with their former coach Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. On the following evening on TV, however, Bayern witnessed a startling change in the tournament agenda. Not the second in the Premier League, who has been made a top favorite, will be waiting for them on Wednesday at the Estádio José Alvelade of Sporting Lisbon, but the seventh in the table from the canceled French Ligue 1, who had traveled as an outsider alongside Atalanta Bergamo and RB Leipzig.
The 3-1 (1-0) of Olympique Lyon against Manchester City in the last quarter-finals was followed by Bayern in their accommodation “Penha Longa Resort” west of Lisbon on TV. They suspected that they would now be dealing with a team that could turn out to be more uncomfortable than it looks on paper. Lyon’s robust compactness including fast counter-attack suddenly seems more dangerous than the mostly static ball possession style with which Guardiola’s Skyblues ricocheted off at Olympique. Especially for Bayern, who are always stormy with and against the ball, who have to process the historic offensive frenzy against Barcelona physically and especially mentally. Lyon is likely to be more uncomfortable than Lionel Messi, Marc-André ter Stegen and the rest of the dismantled Barça workforce because it will hardly do the people of Munich the favor of offering so many rooms.
FC Bayern is currently between flow and mental work, enriched by the brain teaser, how Lyon can best be cracked. Your biggest opponent on the way to the desired title win and thus the second triple in club history after 2013 can only be yourself. Even after the gala against Barcelona, that sounded immediately, despite brief euphoria and bewilderment. “We can enjoy the game,” said Hansi Flick, “but we also know that there is still a lot to do. And we all know how fast that can happen in football. «As a precaution, Hasan Salihamidzic added:» We are really happy – but we want more. «
The fact that the awareness that they had not yet achieved anything “could also be felt in the dressing room,” as Flick put it, contributed to the reassurance of the coach and sports director. Especially since the undiminished greed of his players was also expressed after the epochal success with the goals of Thomas Müller (4th / 31st), Ivan Perisic (21st), Serge Gnabry (27th), Joshua Kimmich (63rd), Robert Lewandowski (82nd) and loaner Philippe Coutinho (85th / 89th), who will return to Barcelona for the time being after the tournament.
This “unbelievable result” is “hard to understand”, said Kimmich, but: “We are not finished yet.” Leon Goretzka found that self-confidence is certainly not decreasing. But it was only the first step. This result won’t do us any good in the next game. ”After a game like this it would be a little more difficult, Thomas Müller, contemporary witness in the 7-1 (5-0) of the German national team against Brazil in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals, reminded us 1-0 after extra time against Argentina in the final followed.
Bayern are now missing two wins for the title and triple. And Barcelona had at least briefly shown that Flick’s eleven are quite vulnerable, despite 19 competitive games in a row and 28 games without defeat. But the own goal by David Alaba (7th), the urge phase afterwards from Barça and the 4: 2 by Luis Suárez (57th) remained footnotes because Bayern immediately demonstrated their unconditional will to win and their superiority through “brutal pressing” (Goretzka) documented. The Messi moment, when Barcelona’s sad artist was just part of the trellis, was also exemplary of its force.
Alphonso Davies let him stand on the middle line at the beginning of his solo run, then the former Munich warrior Arturo Vidal. Arrived on the far left, 19-year-old Davies performed a few body illusions before he ran away from Nélson Semedo, dribbled to the baseline just before Ter Stegen’s goal, delayed and with an overview of Kimmich, who only had to insert to 5: 2. Kimmich said of Davies, “Incredible. I was almost ashamed because I was looking forward to the goal, because of course it was 99 percent his goal. “
Lyon also saw it and eliminated the co-favorites Juventus Turin and Cristiano Ronaldo before Manchester City. The Bavarians, they have firmly resolved after the TV evening, that should not happen. And above all not that they fail on their own.
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