Talking Tactics: Was Guardiola brave or brainless to take on Barca?
Lionel Messi blessed Catalonia with a mesmeric display, entirely incongruous with the magnitude of the occasion and sublime even by his own ridiculous standards.
Aggressive pressing and high defensive lines from both sides creating an entertaining match
It just so happened that Barcelona – with slicker passing on the night, more variation to their movement, and with a preposterously good right winger – were able to break into these areas with more regularity.
Though difficult to capture in the statistics, the sophistication of Barcelona’s pressing – and the almost telepathic relationships between the players – was mesmerising.
Barcelona’s tiki-taka triangles are built upon close-knit, magnetic attractions towards the ball. As a consequence, when the ball is lost there are plenty of bodies already in place to snatch it back.
It is testament to Barcelona’s astonishing performance that Bayern Munich were beaten despite playing very well, showing great collective skill defensively and breaking with intelligence when the opportunity arose.
indeed the image of Messi leaving Jerome Boateng in a heap before elegantly chipping the world’s most feared goalkeeper will live forever in the memory of those fans who witnessed a performance that will, perhaps, be remembered as one of the greatest individual displays in the history of sport.
