For the second straight season, Bayern Munich ended a group stage with a pair of wins over Barcelona. In Julian Nagelsmann’s four games in charge against the Spanish giants, his Bayern side has won 3-0 three times and has not conceded a single goal.
From Serge Gnabry’s trio of superb assists to Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting upstaging former striker Robert Lewandowski, this was another statement victory by Bayern. It was also a reminder to both their opponents and the rest of Europe that it’s one thing to assemble a squad for Champions League glory and quite another to get one that looks capable of it.
“I think when you play Barcelona you need aggression and intensity,” Matthijs de Ligt told DAZN afterwards.
“We were tenacious. I don’t think Barca expected that,” Julian Nagelsmann added.
For all their superstars Barcelona looked a far more disjointed team, incapable of finding the right weight on key passes or conviction in the tackle. Bayern, on the other hand, were faster to the ball and the right decision almost every time. Unlike the first game between these two, Bayern never looked like losing this one.
The challenge for Bayern now is to make all those victories count. Leon Goretzka quipped this week: “Lewy [Lewandowski] was spoiled at Bayern, always making the Round of 16 and advancing.”
The Bayern midfielder isn’t wrong, and Lewandowski will certainly be smarting from a group-stage exit that was confirmed before a ball was even kicked in Spain, but the Bundesliga champions know that much more is expected of them than just reaching the knockouts.
Villarreal a painful memory
When Bayern Munich lost to Villarreal in the quarterfinals last season, a familiar feeling hung around the club. As German sports magazine kicker put it at the time: “The league title is all that’s left.”
Julian Nagelsmann spent the rest of that season struggling to hide his frustration, even when the beer toasting Bayern Munich’s 10th Bundesliga title was being thrown around their home stadium.
The trouble for Bayern with domestic dominance is that it inevitably leads to searching for other ways to measure quality. Bayern have long known they’re the best in Germany, but what about in Europe?
How Bayern perform in the Champions League is the real barometer of how good a season has been for the Bavarians, and is increasingly the motivation behind signing players like Sadio Mane. It also tends to dictate just how long a head coach sticks around.
European form matters
Getting one of the best coaches in the world had been a coup for Bayern, but at the end of Pep Guardiola’s time in charge the three straight semifinal defeats proved more memorable than the 90-point title winning season or how his coaching methods changed German football forever.
Carlo Ancelotti was brought in to do what Guardiola couldn’t, but he left after one quarterfinal defeat to Real Madrid. Jupp Heynckes steadied the ship, and narrowly lost a semifinal, but then came Niko Kovac who was dismissed despite winning a domestic double. The apparent gulf between Bayern and Liverpool in the Round of 16 defeat was enough to convince Bayern’s board that Kovac wasn’t going to take them to coveted Champions League glory.
Hansi Flick delivered, easing the frustration of the years that followed Bayern’s 2013 win. Were it not for a remarkable quarterfinal loss to Paris St. Germain the following season, in which Bayern lost the first leg 3-2 despite having outshout their opponents 31-6 and were then without key striker Robert Lewandowski for the second leg, Flick might have won even more.
Time to shine
Now it’s Nagelsmann’s turn. Having been signed for a record-breaking €25 million, the pressure was always going to be on. To then lose to Villarreal the way they did, only made things more difficult for the 35-year-old.
But, for all the criticism and concern around Bayern’s Bundesliga form, Nagelsmann has sealed top spot in a group with Inter Milan and Barcelona with a perfect record and a game in hand.
After a World Cup that won’t make life easier for Nagelsmann or his squad of international stars, Bayern will travel to Leipzig to restart their Bundesliga campaign and to Mainz in the hope of securing a German Cup quarterfinal spot. But it’s whoever their opponent will be in Europe that will hold the greatest focus.
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