Barcelona have already been demoted to the Europa League before tonight’s match at the Camp Nou against Bayern Munich. The Catalans officially finish third in their group after failing to pick up a single victory in their final three UCL contests.
The players’ morale was obviously affected by being demoted to the Europa, as they were utterly unmotivated from the start.
Sadio Mane scored the game’s first goal for Bayern, and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting quickly doubled their advantage. Barcelona’s influence on the game diminished as the game progressed.
The two goals seemed to be enough to get the visitors through the following 45 minutes. Sadly, Barcelona’s troubles did not finish there as Benjamin Pavard added a third goal in stoppage time to complete an overall easy victory over Barcelona. once more
Hector Bellerin: 3
Terrible positioning during both goals, playing the attackers onside. Struggled to keep up against Alphonso Davies and Sadio Mane on the same wing together.
Jules Kounde: 4,5
A bit clumsy in the opening minutes, but did well after that, with the ball at least.
Marcos Alonso: 4
Way too flimsy under pressure; should not continue at centre-back for Barcelona.
Alejandro Balde: 5.5
Did well a couple of times, troubled Noussair Mazraoui and Serge Gnabry, but not Bayern.
Franck Kessie: 4.5
Barely existed in the game until he was moved deeper in a double pivot. Even then, needs to do a lot better than he is, right now.
Sergio Busquets: 3.5
Not only could Busquets could not go head-to-head against Kimmich and Goretzka, he showed terrible composure during one of Barcelona’s only decent chances of the game.
Frenkie de Jong: 6
Made a fair few runs from deep, but looked far from his best, along with the rest of the team. Covered well for Garcia and Alonso at times.
Ousmane Dembele: 6.5
Dembele had the performance today many expected from him in the first leg vs Bayern. Davies could not, at all, keep up with him, but alas, it led to pretty. much nothing. In fact, the Frenchman messed up the chances he created himself.
Robert Lewandowski: 5
Should have released the trigger earlier on at least two different occasions.
Pedri: 6
Playing on the wing did not particularly stop Pedri from displaying his creativity. He released runners brilliantly, and was one of the better performers for Barcelona today.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen: 5
Crumbled with his distribution under pressure and could have possibly done better for the Choupo-Moting goal. Still, far from the problem.
SUBSTITUTES:
Ferran Torres: 5
Torres’ brilliant associative play was once again visible during the game. Created a handful of opportunities, but to no avail.
Raphinha: 4
Trying to do a bit too much. Needs to go back to the basics.
Eric Garcia: 2
Gave away the ball cheaply, was rescued by de Jong.
Ansu Fati: 5.5
A lively presence in the final third, Fati was close to scoring tonight, but could only do so much. In hindsight, should have probably started tonight.
Pablo Torres: 5
Tried a few risky moves, but none quite came off for him. Could do some real damage with more minutes
