Barcelona vs Bayern Munich: Player ratings as Thomas Muller sparks goalfest in Champions League quarter-final
The German side will face Man City or Lyon in the semis
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Bayern Munich humiliated Barcelona with a rampant 8-2 win in the Champions League on Friday night to book their place in the last four.
The opening goal came just four minutes in, as Thomas Muller played a one-two with Robert Lewandowski and buried the finish, only for David Alaba to slice in an own goal equaliser two minutes later.
An utterly ludicrous first half then saw Sergio Busquets hit the post, Ivan Perisic blast Bayern back ahead, Serge Gnabry net another and Muller score a close-range second—all inside the first half-hour of play.
The second half started with a solo, slaloming goal from Luis Suarez, before Alphonso Davies produced a sublime dribble down the left to give Joshua Kimmich a tap-in. Robert Lewandowski scored a close-range header, before Philippe Coutinho netted the seventh and eighth against his parent club.
Here are the player ratings from the quarter-final on Friday night.
Barcelona
Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 3. Wasn’t given much chance on some of the goals but kept inviting pressure with terrible passes straight out to Thiago and Co.
Nelson Semedo - 5. Threatened at times with his runs down the right flank, Barca’s best outlet. Also struggled defensively though.
Gerard PIque - 4. Pulled all over the shop by Robert Lewandowski; stopped him a few times by getting close enough but couldn’t stop the full Bayern attack. Gave up near the end.
Clement Lenglet - 2. Woefully exposed. Poor with his positional work, worse with his reaction times on through passes and crosses. Didn’t have a clue how to stop Muller and Gnabry’s alternating runs.
Jordi Alba - 5. Similar to Semedo as an outlet, but got his pass or cross wrong more often than not when in good areas. Another who failed to impact defensively.
Sergio Busquets - 4. Totally overrun in the centre and didn’t have the recovery pace against Bayern’s attack flooding forward.
Sergi Roberto - 4. Gave the ball away far too much. Subbed at the break.
Frenkie de Jong - 6. Actually did well with his work rate and passing but it largely amounted to nothing as he was surrounded by incompetence.
Arturo Vidal - 3. A couple of half-decent runs forward but didn’t impact play at all really. Pushed back in the second half and was terrible defensively.
Lionel Messi - 6. Possibly his team’s best performer, certainly in the first half. Saw the spaces to play into over and over, but his team-mates couldn’t show the same level of execution. One early dribble and shot on goal.
Luis Suarez - 6. Still has the movement and first touch to escape a defender, but no longer has the pace to drive forward from 40 yards away from goal. Great solo goal, shame he didn’t get more service in the box.
Bayern Munich
Manuel Neuer - 6. Beaten a couple of times, might have done better with one of them. Good distribution.
Joshua Kimmich - 8. Did well defensively, mostly peerless with his creativity in the channels and put the final touch on the most thrilling goal of the night.
Jerome Boateng - 5. Bayern are probably looking forward to having Niklas Sule back to full fitness. Shown up one-on-one more than once.
David Alaba - 7. Early own goal, but very good thereafter. Good recovery pace against the counters and a few neat diagonals.
Alphonso Davies - 9. Decent battle against Semedo in the first half. Second half he absolutely ripped the flank open time after time, never more so than for Bayern’s fifth goal which was all of his own making.
Thiago Alcantara - 8. Another special performance in the middle. Always able to find the space for the pass or the dribble.
Leon Goretzka - 7. Lacked the refinement of Thiago but still played a huge role in Bayern’s shock-and-awe overrunning of the midfield zone.
Ivan Perisic - 7. Fine strike for his goal, lots of running in the channels. Always a good outlet.
Thomas Muller - 9. Non-stop brilliant. Untrackable with his movement, selfless with his passing, clinical with his finishing.
Serge Gnabry – 8. Similarly difficult to stop but in a very different way to Muller. So quick, happy to repeatedly switch flanks, popped up as the No. 9 at times
Robert Lewandowski - 8. All the movement and work rate, but it took until the final few minutes for him to get on the scoresheet of a match with so many goals in!
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments