Bayern Munich take a 4-0 lead into the second leg of their Uefa Champions League semi final with Barcelona on Wednesday night and the bookies make Barca a 16/1 shot to turn things around.
It's very rare you see Barcelona outplayed but that is pretty much what happened in Munich last week as Bayern took a stranglehold on the tie. Whilst Bayern had the rub of the green with a couple of decisions that led to goals, their dominance was clear cut against a Barca side who simply never got going.
Barca were the only one of the semi finalists who opted against making wholesale changes for their domestic league match at the weekend. Barca shared four goals away from home at Athletic Club and a goal for Lionel Messi in Bilbao was a welcome boost given he had looked well off the pace on his return from injury in Munich last week. One other pointer towards the tie being far from over is Barca's 4-0 home win in the second leg of their last 16 tie with Milan where they overturned a 2-0 deficit. However they were arguably a touch fortunate to go through in the quarter finals, edging out PSG on away goals (3-3 aggregate) after making hard work of a 1-1 draw in the second leg at Camp Nou. A single away goal for Bayern here will eliminate the possibility of extra time and Barca would need six to go through. Twelve months ago Barca drew the second leg of their semi final 2-2 with Chelsea which saw them bow out 3-2 on aggregate.
Bayern left a number of their big guns on the bench in a 1-0 home win over Freiburg in their Bundesliga match on Saturday. Already crowned champions and holding a 20 point lead there in addition to being assured of a place in the final of the DFP, this certainly has the makings of a dream season. Bayern have conceded just three goals in 15 Bundesliga road trips in the current campaign and they had no problems in completing a 4-0 aggregate win over Juventua with a 2-0 victory in the second leg in Turin in the quarter finals of this competition. However Bayern were given a scare by Arsenal in the last 16, seemingly home and hosed after a 3-1 first leg win in London, they lost the return 2-0 to edge through on away goals. Bayern also lost a group stage match 3-1 at BATE early doors in this competition but it will clearly take the mother of all collapses if they fail to reach the final. Bayern came through last season's semi final on penalty kicks after losing the second leg 2-1 away to Real Madrid having earlier won by the same scoreline in Munich.
