So far there has been no match for Bayern Munich after taking Barcelona to the cleaners in an 8-2 victory in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The third and second-last game of the Champions League quarter-finals round brought forth a fixture with a higher number of goals than the two previous quarter-final meetings combined. Bayern Munich joins their countrymen RB Leipzig and the French PSG in the semifinals.
Now they wait to see who will be their opponents in the next round when the winner between Manchester City and Lyon has been decided. Quite frankly, the duo meeting on Saturday will already be looking to the semi-finals and dreading a semi against Munich.
Barca was simply no match for Bayern
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The scorecard says it all. Eight goals scored by the Bavarians and the two by the Catalans becomes the highest-scoring knockout game in the UCL era and third-highest goalscoring match in the history of the Champions League. This encounter’s total exceeded their win against Chelsea over two legs. That scoreline on aggregate was 7-1.
Goals were flying in from everywhere, on either end of the pitch, both halves of the game, and even by the bench players coming onto the pitch, late in the second half. Thomas Müller, Ivan Perišić, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Robert Lewandowski, and Philippe Coutinho, all put their names on the scoresheet for Bayern.
The pair of consolation goals for Barcelona came through a David Alba own goal and Luis Suarez. The Spanish side was so bad it seemed as if they didn’t show up for the fixture. Bayern pressed them into mistakes each and every time Messi and co got on the ball.
Munich is the team to beat!
The Germans were the best scoring team coming into the knockout phase. They had the most goals with 24 scored and the only team to score more than 20 goals in the group stages. The teams closest to them were Spurs with 18 goals and Paris Saint-Germain with 17.
In the knockout stages and despite being limited to one leg per round after the round of 16, they have still managed to gather up double figures over the first three knockout clashes. They top the charts in the knockout rounds with a monstrous 15 goals.
The team coming closest to them has been knockout of the tournament. Atalanta, the little dark horse managed to score a total of nine goals across three Champions League meetings. A pity they were unfortunate to not put away their chances when running out against PSG.
This declares Bayern Munich as the hardest team to beat and the most likely to take gold. Teams who could rival them for the European title are Man City and PSG, with RB Leipzig showing signs of being the biggest upset in the near history of the competition.