Bayern Munich took a massive step towards the Champions League final with an incredible 4-0 thrashing of Barcelona in the first leg of their last four clashes at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.
Thomas Muller opened the scoring with a close-range header, and put the second on a plate for Mario Gomez minutes into the second half.
Muller would controversially play a role in Arjen Robben’s goal after apparently fouling Jordi Alba off the ball, before tapping in the fourth himself with eight minutes remaining to round off the biggest ever margin of victory in a Champions League semi-final.
Bayern could have been ahead as early as the fourth minute. Robben exchanged passes with Gomez, and it took the outstretched legs of Victor Valdes to deny the Dutch winger from point blank range.
Barca was winning the possession battle, but it was the Bavarian side who controlled the opening exchanges. Javi Martinez’ tumble in the box was correctly ignored by the referee, who was forced into a bigger no-call when Philipp Lahm’s shot struck Pique’s elbow.
The Barca defender headed wide at the other end from a corner, but it was an isolated scare from the blunted Catalans, and with 25 minutes on the clock, Bayern made their superiority count.
A corner was worked to Robben, whose cross was flicked on by Dante, and Muller was first to the ball, sneaking a header past Valdes at the post.
Gomez then picked up the first yellow card of the game for barging into Messi, and he was quickly followed into the book by Bartra and Martinez for challenges on Muller and Andres Iniesta either side of the interval.
Just like the first goal, Robben’s delivery was met by a Bayern head, with Muller guiding the ball towards the goal line, where Gomez was waiting to gleefully bundle the ball home.
The Bundesliga side was simply dominating, and the match threatened to get ugly very fast for Barca had Muller and Franck Ribery been more accurate when presented with the chance to pick their spot from great shooting positions.
But the third goal was always on the cards, and it duly arrived with 17 minutes remaining, albeit in contentious circumstances. Muller’s off the ball block on Alba went unheeded, and with the full-back out of the way, Robben curled sublimely into the far corner.
And in the 82nd minute, it was 4-0. David Alaba’s overlapping run down the left ended with a low cross into the six-yard area, where Muller was waiting to turn into the back of the net to leave the second leg at Camp Nou as little more than a formality, and finish off an epic 24 hours for Bayern.
