Xavi’s Barcelona side travel to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League tonight hoping to put in a better performance than they have in recent years against the Bundesliga champions. Last season Bayern won 3-0 home and away in the group stage, while they beat Barcelona 8-2 in the quarter-finals two years ago.
One big difference now though is that they will have Robert Lewandowski in their corner. The Polish striker has wasted no time in settling in at Barcelona, with nine goals in six appearances including a hat-trick on his Champions League debut for the club. He starts for the visitors, as does Marcos Alonso in a surprise decision.
Bayern have been in somewhat stumbling form by their lofty standards, despite a win over Inter Milan last week. Three Bundesliga draws on the bounce has not been the kind of form their supporters are used to. Follow all the action with Standard Sport’s LIVE blog below!
Live updates
74 mins: Kimmich drags De Jong down, wasn’t going to let go of that Barcelona shirt until the whistle went.
Earns a yellow card but it’s a ‘good’ one, stopping the counter from the visitors.
71 mins: Mane off for Bayern, Gnabry on to replace him.
Busquets gets caught on the halfway line, manages to make it look like he’s been absolutely clattered as he falls over.
68 mins: There are more goals in this for Bayern, they’re getting so many bodies forward still.
Davies inside to Goretzka, has Sane out wide to his right but goes for goal himself instead. Blocked.
Dembele leads the Barcelona break, beats about five challenges before he slides a pass through to Pedri, just too much on it.
65 mins: That Pedri effort flicked off the post and then out, inches away from halving the deficit.
The confidence Barcelona had playing out from the back in the first half has gone though, they look really vulnerable to the Bayern press.
63 mins: MASSIVE MOMENT!
Pedri and Lewandowski combine brilliantly, the midfielder is in goal. Tries to clip it over the goalkeeper, just rolls wide. Looked like it was going to trickle in.
62 mins: Here comes Musiala again, Barcelona’s midfield has completely disappeared.
Drags the shot wide, should really have done better. Worrying times for the visitors, they’re all over the place.
61 mins: De Jong and Torres on, Gavi and Raphinha off.
Musiala with a strike at goal from just outside the box, blasted over the bar.
59 mins: Here come Bayern again, they win another corner. Barcelona need to deal with this one a lot better.
Too close to the goalkeeper from Kimmich, Ter Stegen off his line to comfortably punch it away.
57 mins: Barcelona look absolutely stunned, Bayern have turned up for five minutes and completely taken control.
More misery for Barcelona on this ground, though there’s still time to turn it around.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 2-0 Barcelona | Leroy Sane 54′
IT’S TWO!
Barcelona being blown away all of a sudden, two goals in about four minutes.
Musiala with brilliant work again, turns with it and slides Sane in. Drives into the box, lovely finish into the far corner as it rolls over the line.
