Bavaria’s epochal memories of Barcelona (nd-aktuell.de)

Ah, Barcelona. The memories that connect them in Munich with the blue and red pride of Catalonia are beautiful. Things have gone better for FC Bayern in the Bundesliga than they have these days – so it’s a good thing that the European football circuit has distractions in store. Bayern like to think back to the epoch-making 8-2 win against Barça in the summer of 2019 or the 4-0 win in spring 2013, both times in the knockout stages of the Champions League, stops before their later triumphs in Lisbon and Wembley.

This Tuesday, on the second day of the current game, we will face Robert Lewandowski for the first time at home after his switch from the Bundesliga to the Primera Division, which was accompanied by all sorts of background noise. Robert Lewandowski scores in Barcelona as reliably as in his eight years in Munich. He scored three goals in a 5-1 win against Viktoria Plzeň’s unfortunate Czechs on Matchday 1 in Europe, and one in the domestic league on Saturday in a 4-0 win over FC Cadiz. For his first six games, the statistics record nine goals for the now 34-year-old Pole.

When he sees his old colleagues again, does he remember his first duel in a Bayern jersey with Barça? In the spring of 2015, Lewandowski was at the end of his first year in Munich. As usual, it ended at national level with winning the German championship – and yet it did not meet the requirements because the DFB Cup went into the showcase of VfL Wolfsburg and things did not go according to plan in Europe.

The commands on the bench were given by Pep Guardiola, the football saint from Catalonia, who had to deal with his heart club Barcelona for the first time in the semi-finals. The first leg at the Camp Nou was extremely one-sided. In 90 minutes, Bayern had just one chance to score, miserably missed by Lewandowski. The fact that it was still goalless fifteen minutes before the end was less due to Bayern’s footballing ability than to the brilliant performance of their goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. But then Lionel Messi scored twice and Neymar once in added time. The Munich dream of reaching the final in Berlin was already over.

The second leg was Guardiola’s first win over Barça and Lewandowski’s first goal against the club that no one knew at the time would be his future. It was the compensation for the interim 2:2. It spoke for the decency of Munich and the loyalty to their coach that they still wanted to make possible what was hardly possible to do. Mehdi Benatia’s early lead saw hopes of the final last five minutes until two goals from Neymar allayed doubts. Lewandowski’s first goal against Barcelona and Thomas Müller’s winning goal shortly before the end were only statistically relevant.

Guardiola later said how proud he was of his team and that he would try again the following year for the European summit, which was also unsuccessful. In the spring of 2016, the coach failed with Bayern for the third time in a row in the semi-finals against a Spanish team, this time against Atlético Madrid. Lewandowski scored again, this time to win the second leg 2-1 – not enough because the first leg was lost 1-0 in Madrid.