The first leg of the Champions League Semi-final is in the books between Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich. This game was the most intriguing of the week as the top two clubs in the world faced off against each other in the first leg of the semi-finals. Pep Guardiola returns to Barcelona to coach against his former team. The first half was mostly Barca, getting most of the chances. Bayern had their opportunities every so often but Barca definitely had more chances. Both teams wanted to get out to a fast start.
Barcelona 3 – 0 Bayern Munich
The first half was filled with lots of drama from Barcelona as Suarez gets on the breakaway in the 12th minute, tries to shoot past Neuer to take the early lead but is blocked by a diving Neuer with his foot.
In the 17th minute, one of the closest opportunities from Bayern happened when Lewandowski gets a ground cross played into him and tries to slide to kick the ball past Ter Stegen, but he completely misses and the ball trickles past.
The first half ended with a 0-0 tie.
Messi breaks the deadlock, beating Neuer near post to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead #UCLonFOX http://t.co/1Gvm9PtDXP
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 6, 2015
Messi receives the ball at the top of the box and turns to head towards goal, he shoots near post and it gets past Neuer for the first goal of the game. With Neuer being that good of a keeper, no one expected Neuer to get beat near post like that.
Messi schools Boateng, then chips Neuer to make it 2-0 for Barcelona #UCLonFOX Watch: http://t.co/JCzY4hSmom
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 6, 2015
Messi adds to his total of Champions league goals and takes the lead back from Ronaldo as he takes Boateng on one-on-one, Boateng ends up getting completely turned around and falling with Neuer the last line of defense coming out. Messi notices him coming to contend for the ball but not before Messi chips the ball over him and into the net to extend the lead 2-0. This goal happened in the 80th minute, two goals in three minute for the best player in the world.
Neymar puts the icing on the cake, makes it 3-0 for Barcelona #UCLonFOX Watch: http://t.co/P8pIsJMHhy
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 6, 2015
The final goal to put the nail on the coffin was a through ball from Messi past the defense onto a sprinting Neymar. Neymar finally takes advantage of this one as he slots it by Neuer calmed and collected to completely put this one out of reach. Neymar was having a tough game as he was upset at a previous no-call from the ref that could have been a penalty. He came back and retaliated and ended up picking up the yellow card. On the bright side, Neymar was using his speed and agility to evade and get past defenders all day and Bayern Munich had no answer for it.
Bayern Munich recorded 0 shots on target.
Returning back to Germany for the second-leg, Bayern will be looking to execute quickly and often. With no away goals taken account, Bayern will have to produce the same result against Barcelona on Tuesday or produce one more goal so extra time won’t be needed.
Champions League action returns next Tuesday, May 12th as Bayern Munich try’s to prevail over Barcelona. Then a week from today is Real Madrid against Juventus as Juventus leads that aggregate 2-1.
