News
JUE 07.05.2015
FC Barcelona took a giant step towards cementing their place in the UEFA Champions League final after defeating FC Bayern München 3-0 in the first leg semi-final tie between the teams. With two Lionel Messi goals and a Neymar strike in the second half, los azulgrana will take a commanding lead to Germany for the second leg and their hopes of reaching the Berlin final on 6 June now look more realistic.
The Camp Nou was treated to a thrilling first half of football, full of emotion and good football. Barcelona came flying out of the traps and delighted the home crowd by bearing down on the German side’s goalmouth on numerous occasions. Barca’s first clear-cut chance came in the twelfth minute when Luis Suárez, with just Manuel Neuer to beat, saw his effort blocked by the German keeper.
That was not to be the only time the Catalans threaten to breech the visitor’s net, and Neuer played a key role again soon afterwards with a fine save to keep a Dani Alves shot from hitting the mark. Despite struggling to contain Barcelona’s relentlessness, the Bavarians also came close to scoring when a dangerous Thomas Müller cross found Robert Lewandowski, but the Polish striker was unable to get his shot on target from close range.
Los azulgrana continued to run things after the break, although Luis Enrique's charges were made to wait until the later stages of the game to break the deadlock. It had to be Messi who made it 1-0, and the Argentine did so with a left-footed strike from the edge of the box in the 77th minute to send the Camp Nou into raptures. Messi rounded off his great performance shortly afterwards, in the 80th minute, with a deft chip over an onrushing Neuer to make it 2-0. And just when it appeared that things were over, Neymar popped up to get his team’s third of the night and effectively wrap up the tie ahead of the second leg next Tuesday.
© LALIGA - 2015