FazBeautiful Barca the best team in Europe
April 9th 2009 01:01
When Barcelona’s line-up of superstars perform, like they did against Bayern Munich this morning, they become arguably the most difficult side in Europe to stop, no matter who plays them.
Against German giants Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp, Barcelona had one of those days of dominance that makes them arguably the best team to watch in the Champions League.
The inspiration of Lionel Messi, the skill of Thierry Henry and the potency of Samuel Eto’o, was always going to be too much against a Bayern Munich side who now must overcome a 4-0 deficit at home next week, if they are any chance of qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals.
From the opening minutes of the first half, Barcelona was in glorious touch, with Messi opening the scoring in just the ninth minute of the game with a delicate finish.
Messi then turned provider for Eto’o courtesy of a wonderful through ball that the Cameroon striker finished with aplomb.
Henry scored Barcelona’s third goal to effectively seal the result against a hapless Munich team that was quietly confident of pulling off the upset.
Messi eventually scored his second goal to make it 4-0 and leave Barcelona an inch away from a semi-final showdown against either Chelsea or Liverpool.
Barcelona’s second half was one of consolidation for the home side, as Bayern came up with limited chances to threaten Victor Valdes’ goal.
Despite the apparent lack in intensity, Barcelona still came up with numerous chances to add to the summit of goals they scored in the first half.
An individual effort from Messi was well saved by Bayern goalkeeper Hans Jörg Butt -the stop at least keeping Bayern on life support as they return to Germany for next week’s second leg against the Catalan giants.
But the ominous form of Barcelona duo Messi, Henry and Eto’o should see Europe’s most fluent team head into the semifinals full of confidence.
On their day, Barcelona are a sure bet to go all the way.
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