In the end, it was a mountain too high for the lion hearted Munich team to climb. The three goal deficit from the Nou Camp battle a week earlier proved to be a decisive factor, and though Bayern put up a spirited performance in front of their home fans, it was not good enough.

Bright beginning for Bayern

Both teams played an unchanged eleven – but Bayern looked full of intent and positivity right from the kick off. As the fans roared their support and the drums thundered nonstop, it was Bayern who took the game to Barcelona’s half in the initial minutes.

Guardiola had no surprises this time in defence and the back four with Boateng in command tried to plug the spaces when the redoubtable trio once again started to roam like a pack of African lions. But upfront, it was a different story altogether.

Possibly realising that they had nothing to lose, Bayern started controlling the ball and mixing short passes with judicious long balls. Suddenly the Barca defence was back-pedalling furiously as Lewandowski and Muller started asking a lot of questions in tandem with Thiago, Schweinsteiger and Benatia. And from a Xabi Alonso corner, it was Benatia who struck first in the 7th minute when the Barca defence inexplicably – albeit typically – allowed him a free header (1-0).

Barca strike back

But Benatia’s forward runs were to prove his undoing. While the stadium quaked with the anticipation of a mouth-watering comeback from Bayern, Messi, who was in idle mode till now, suddenly saw a gap during a rapid counter move. He made an inch-perfect pass for Suarez who in turn unselfishly laid it on a plate for Neymar to tap in (1-1).

In 15 minutes, the dreaded away goal had happened – and the German fans were stunned into silence. As Bayern regrouped and again went into attack mode, Neymar made it 2-1 (and a 5-1 aggregate) with another classic counter with Suarez once again providing a perfect assist.

At this point, the game was all but over as Bayern needed to score 5 more to score an improbable upset. Maybe against a different team but not against this Barca unit. With Messi lurking all over the place and Neymar and Suarez playing off each other, it became very difficult to contain MNS and attack in the same vein.

Second half, second life

But kudos to Guardiola as, after the break, instead of giving up Bayern once again came out with all guns blazing. The Barca defence looked shaky at times, though one might argue that they had probably eased off sensing victory. Bayern attacked in waves though and players like Muller and Schweinsteiger played their hearts out as Ter Stegen had to come up with several key saves in the Barca goal. Lewandowski scored a beauty and Muller followed up with the third goal soon after but the scoreline remained 3-2 right till the end. Bayern redeemed themselves somewhat with the win, but in the end they lost to a superior team.

While Guardiola has to now decide his future and how to rebuild this great side for next season perhaps, Luis Enrique can feel happy that he has the world’s most incredible trio at his disposal for the UCL final. But a word of caution – maybe he should look at the defensive setup more closely of this almost perfect team.

While Barca may have stepped off the gas in the second half, Bayern did find enough gaps to test the defence and the goalkeeper time and again. The man to man coverage was quite poor and free headers in the penalty box for the likes of Ronaldo, James Rodriguez or Pogba could prove to be lethal in the final.

Dani Alves has the typical Brazilian flair of running down the flanks to attack but was taking a lot of time to get back, allowing the Bayern strikers to utilise those spaces. Food for thought for whichever team out of Juve and Real qualifies.

Rathindra Basu lives, breathes, sleeps sports and is forever waiting for the next Indian sporting triumph. Since this usually takes much time and infinite patience he also listens to music, reads voraciously and eats almost anything that moves!