Match awards from Bayern Munich’s 4-1 Champions League defeat to FC Barcelona

Jersey exchange: Raphinha

Talk about putting your stamp on a game!

The 27-year-old Brazil international has had a slow start to his career. Champions League career, having failed to score in his first 10 UCL matches. But the FC Barcelona The winger got off to a blistering start, starting in the first minute and not letting up. Raphinha had put Bayern Munich to the sword with a hat-trick when all was said and done.

Operating on the left wing in this battle of the impossibly high lines, Raphinha regularly found space behind, around and through Bayern’s Raphaël Guerreiro. Where Vincent Kompany’s men missed their many chances, Raphinha only had a few clear looks at goal and buried them all with ice in his veins. Three shots, three on target, three goals. Manuel Neuer and his backs will have nightmares for weeks.

The Kaiser: Dayot Upamecano

Tasked with drifting high up the pitch to lock down Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski – and how did it happen? — Upamecano and Kim Min-jae had their moment to introduce the physical side of the game to their opponents. But they also had to deal with a lot of space behind them, some of which wasn’t even theirs. Upamecano, in particular, was cleaning up on the right flank after Barça’s wingers had beaten makeshift right-back Guerreiro again and again – sometimes returning in time to make the intervention, and sometimes, as on the third goal, at hardly.

The score is not flattering for Bayern’s CB duo but it should be even less flattering for Kompany’s tactics. Until the final whistle, Upamecano did his best to defend valiantly in the box, and he also had plenty of work to do up the pitch. It was a solid effort on a day where the game got away from everyone, starting with the coach.

God of Football: Thomas Müller

Where was the Bayern midfielder? Be bypassed most often. João Palhinha launched a few physical challenges high up the pitch, but with the ball at his feet, the Portuguese international did not offer the quick dynamism that Bayern could have benefited from. Neither did Joshua Kimmich, who had a difficult match from start to finish – snatching the ball out of the air for the opening goal, scored in the first minute, and snatching Lamine Yamal in the 83rd as the Barça youngster uncorked a delicious center than Robert Lewandowski I probably should have buried a fifth.

So let’s move on to the attacking midfielder ranks.

Thomas Müller at least showed fire in his belly. Barca gave Bayern incredible space and the Space interpreter was everywhere to interpret it. His first cross towards Harry Kane was ruled out for offside by a shattered knee, and you know what? It was exactly that kind of day for Bayern.

But Müller was one of the only Bayern players who showed the intensity and determination needed to get a result today. This deserves a shout.

Also: How much does this midfielder miss Aleksandar Pavlović?

The bomber: Serge Gnabry

It wasn’t a banner day for any of Bayern’s forwards. Against Barca’s youngsters, it was Bayern’s more experienced veterans who failed to show their composure – loose touches, indecision and a maddening inability to stay in the game. The Bavarians took advantage of the new opportunities that the ultra line -high from Hansi Flick gave them for much of the first half and part of the second.

This was Bayern’s chance to take control of the game, as Bayern of old always did ruthlessly. They let it slip away, and even the second-half substitutes, Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman and Jamal Musiala, didn’t bring their A-game.

Gnabry, at least, picked up an assist for Bayern’s only goal. But in all the space he had, the Germany international needed to do much better.

Master of the match: Harry Kane

One goal scored, another narrowly denied. Harry Kane couldn’t drag Bayern into this one, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

As the match progressed, the England captain found himself spending a comical amount of time in his own half, even going so far as to make important defensive interventions as Barca danced around the team’s vulnerable flanks. Bayern. His goal-scoring touch and terrific through-balls – cutting through several ranks of Barcelona’s lines and finding Bayern’s wingers in space, only to have nothing come of it – teased the game that could have been.

Kane was ready for this one, and he will be ready for the next one. But the team as a whole found itself completely overwhelmed. He will now have to pick up the pieces – and regain the morale of his teammates – and move on. ◆

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