Bayern 3-2 Barca (3-5 agg.): Berlin-Bound Catalans Despite Defeat

The Bundesliga champions needed to overturn a 3-0 deficit from last week’s first leg in Spain and Medhi Benatia quickly made case for their recovery mission with an early header down Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal.

Barca were back on equal footing when Luis Suarez broke free and squared across Manuel Neuer for Neymar to tap in. The pair combined again for the Brazilian to take his tally to nine in Europe this season.

Robert Lewandowski curled home an equaliser before Thomas Muller side-footed home and helped extend Bayern’s unbeaten run at the Allianz Arena this campaign.

Barca yet progressed to their eighth European Cup final and will meet the winners of the second semi-final between La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Italian champions Juventus in the 6 June final slated for the German capital of Berlin.

Both managers named an unchanged side from the reverse a week ago.

Hardly would anyone have placed a bet on a Bayern success on Tuesday, but the Bavarians managed to take off with a Benatia bang; the unmarked Moroccan defender rose high to thump into the bottom left corner from inside the area.
The hosts’ early lead was canceled out right after a quarter of an hour, as Suarez got on the end of Lionel Messi’s perfectly weighted pass and then fed Neymar with a simple assist which the former Santos forward was never going to miss from 6 yards.

Bayern continued to press for goals but Muller and Lewandowski couldn’t take them, amidst some impressive piece of goalkeeping from Ter Stegen.

The Germans were left trailing on the half-hour mark following a sweeping move involving Suarez and Neymar, with the Uruguay international again squaring for his team-mate to fire into the near corner.

At that point, Pep Guardiola’s men needed to score five more goals, yet could not grab one before the break.

The visitors substituted Suarez at the break and offered little threat in the second half.

Lewandowski eventually got among the scores on 59 minutes, showing quick feet to carve open space and then picked out his corner with a delightful finish. Muller also found Ter Stegen’s corner, but there was no denying Barca victory.