Key Remarks from the shocking result:
- Barcelona has been bad throughout the entire season. That was enough for the club to finish second in La Liga and reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. But a, when you face a team like Bayern, your bluff will be revealed. And Barça did bluff this entire season. Many years of building a bad team, choosing sub-par coaches, neglecting the ethos and philosophy of the club. This disintegration is not surprising. The club’s infrastructure is rotten due to years of failed and embarrassing management by Joseph Maria Bartomeu. So probably in an earthquake, it will collapse. And this earthquake was Bayern Munich.
- Arturo Vidal, the Barcelona midfielder, said before the match that Barcelona is not afraid of Bayern Munich. “They are playing against Barcelona, not just against a team in the Bundesliga,” said the Chilean. “They play against the best team in the world.” – Ironic after the result.
- It is clear that FC Barcelona is not the best team in the world, You do not need any advanced data to know this. But Barca has been humiliated in this match and according to the advanced data we had before the game it is not really surprising. Bayern Munich reaches about 4.16 expected goals and expected assists in the match, which will lead to more than 4 expected goals in each match). Barcelona reaches 2.9. Bayern Munich’s expected goal difference in the Champions League is 2.24. That’s 1.83 more than Barcelona. No one in the Champions League has an expected goal difference of more than 2. Anyone who looked at the data was not surprised by this difference. Bayern – in the Bundesliga and the Champions League – reaches situations equivalent to the scoring situations of Paris Saint-Germain in France. Barcelona – according to the data – is a bit better than Villarreal on a mediocre day. Villarreal is a great team – but not close to being the best team in the world.
- The coaches – Unlike Barcelona, Bayern Munich has a football coach on the sidelines, there is no doubt about Hansi Flick’s fingerprint. “Bayern Munich star Thomas Müller told the Sudwich newspaper. “We all want the same thing, we all pull in the same direction – the last time we were so coordinated and practised was under Pep Guardiola. Each player can add himself and his interpretation of his role – according to his weaknesses and strengths – but what everyone needs to do is very clear”
- It was a match between a team that knows exactly what it wants and how to do it against a team that has no idea where to stand, run and move and what to do anywhere.
- Leo Messi – In the last decade, he has played 9 games in which he was eliminated from the Champions League – in comparison Christiano Ronaldo scored in 5 out of 7 of the matches that he was eliminated from, you might say that he is not there when he is needed.
- The data from this historical game is amazing. Barcelona has not conceded eight goals or more in 80 years (11-1 to Sevilla). Bayern leaves the Champions League semi-final without a Spanish team for the first time in 13 years.
- Robert Lewandowski is providing a historic season and should consider winning the Golden Ball Award just for him. He is the leading scorer (14 goals – a goal in every game of the season in the Champions League) and he also provided the most assists (5). Bayern Munich also has the third biggest scorer in the Champions League this season (Serge Gnabry – 7 goals in 7 games + two assists).
- Gerard Pique’s conclusion: “It was a terrible game. A terrible feeling. I am ashamed. It is very difficult. The club needs changes and I am not talking about the coach or the players. We need structural change. We have reached the bottom of the well.”
