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With an aggregate score of 5-3, FC Barcelona were able to advance to the final held in Berlin for the UEFA Champions League. Two goals by Neymar helped them win in an aggregate score of 5-3. Bayern Munich came into the second leg with a mentality to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the first leg. Defensive players Medhi Benatia and David Alaba had spoken to the press and told them that they can come back from such deficit and win four goals to none in the second leg. Goals from Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, and Benatia were not enough as they fell to Barcelona on Tuesday night at the Allianz Arena.
Bayern were strong throughout the match and gave Barcelona a fight, taking an early lead in the first half but Neymar’s first goal of the match put the aggregate lead back to three goals. He then made it to four when he scored his second on the 29th minute. Muller and Lewandowski were able to add two more for Bayern, enough to give Barcelona fans a small score. They kept pressuring and had most of the possession for the last 20-30 minutes of the match, but were not able to get anything going after the third goal to advance to the final.
With the lack of Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben on Tuesday night and Mario Gotze on the bench, there was not much Bayern could do to come back and win an unstoppable Barcelona team. Instead, Thiago Alcantara got a spot in the starting lineup along with Lewandowski, who played the whole game with a face mask. Barcelona had all key players and goalkeeper Marc Andre-Ter Stegen put a remarkable show as he saved Barcelona several times.
Benatia was able to put his team on the scoreboard on the seventh minute. Bayern were given a corner and as the ball was crossed in, Benatia was able to connect with the ball and head it towards Ter Stegen, who tipped the ball with his glove but was not enough as the game became 3-1 on aggregate.
Less than eight minutes later, Barcelona was on the scoreboard with a nice play put on by the striking trio. Lionel Messi found Luis Suarez made a run with two defenders on him and the ball somehow still got to him. Instead of going for goal, Suarez passed it to Neymar, who was on his left, and kissed the ball into the net to make it 4-1 on aggregate.
Neymar made it 5-1 on aggregate on the 29′ minute with Suarez assisting him once again. Suarez received a pass from Messi as he headed the ball towards him. Suarez made a run for the ball and found Neymar open to his left. He chipped it and Neymar brought it down with his chest and put it in the bottom left of Manuel Neuer’s net.
Before the half ended, Bayern had a chance to tie the game as Lewandowski went for goal and Ter Stegen was able to stop it with the tip of his glove. The ball then rolled towards the goal and Ter Stegen had cat-like reflexes as he stopped the ball before it crossed the goal line.
The second half belonged to Bayern as they were able to get two more goals and put Barcelona on the tip of their toes. Messi lost the ball against Thiago and found Lewandowski just outside the box. Lewandowski then brought the ball down and played around with Javier Mascherano and the rest of the defense. Barcelona was a bit casual during the play and Lewandowski was able to curl it in and past Ter Stegen to make it 5-2 on aggregate.
Muller was able to make it 5-3 on aggregate as he got a ball from Juan Bernat outside the box. Muller then attempted to find Lewandowski inside the box but bounced off Gerard Pique’s foot. Bastian Schweinsteiger got the rebound and found Muller open outside the box. Muller then had space to curl it in and take the lead in the second leg and two goals behind on aggregate.
Bayern kept pressuring Barcelona but they did not have enough power to make three more goals and exited the Champions League. Pep Guardiola’s men knew that they had put in a lot of energy into this game and were devastated to not see the Champions League final. Barcelona, on the other hand, head to the June 6th final and hope to win their fourth title against either Juventus FC or Real Madrid.
The man of the match goes out to Neymar for his two goals that helped Barcelona advance to the final of the Champions League competition.
