The Holy grail
Season 2019/2020 Group Stage
Day 2 Analyzed games
01/10 Tottenham - Bayern Munich 2:7
02/10 Barcelona - Inter 2:1
Oh boy, oh boy ... Where do I start? The Champions League offered us again a great spectacle. We witnessed truly amazing events which proved yet for another time why so many people love this game and how unpredictable it can be. July 8th 2014, Belo Horizonte - does that ring a bell? Let me help you recover memories which might have been so magical for some but equally tragic for another. This was the date when the semifinal of the World cup 2014 was played between Brazil and Germany which ended 1:7 for the Bundes team. If anyone should have learned anything from that match it is that you never, never go out to outplay Germany. This is the same as committing seppuku in front of 60 000 people. Any other strategy used by the Brazilians would have been more likely to have had a better outcome. The same principal should have been applied in the game between Tottenham and Bayern Munich. Bayern is a team against whom no one ever should go out and try to outplay them. The result for Tottenham for having done so was as disastrous as it was for Brazil five years ago. However I greatly admire Tottenham players for their approach to this game because this is really what football should be all about. Two teams coming out playing against each other putting all strategies and well trained schemes behind. Scoring rather than conceiving. Pure magic of football.
I will not bother you with any statistics data from this game because I will need few pages only to describe the number of opportunities created by both teams not to mention the goals scored. Nonetheless one name stood out last night in London. This is Serge Gnabry. The 24 year old Stuttgart born player from Bayern Munich who scored four times. His incredible performance brought another flashback into my memory. This was when the World of football discovered Kylian Mbappe during the extraordinary games between Monaco and Manchester City from the knockout stage of the Champions League in February 2017.
He was then five years younger than what Gnabry's age today is. But even so I am expecting Gnabry's future career to be equally successful. Tottenham was fiercely humiliated in front of their own crowd last night by the well oiled Bavarian machine which was shamelessly crashing everything thrown at her. For a team who played in the Champions League final just four months ago this is the least to say a serious step back no one had ever expected. Tottenham confidence was greatly injured and we are soon to find out whether this will have positive or negative impact in their future performance. In any case their chances in continuing further in this season's campaign are still very much alive although this game left them at the bottom of the table. I am sure that Mauricio Pochettino will manage to restore his players spirit in the shortest delay possible. The best way will be to try to completely forget about this loss. This happens sometimes even to the greatest teams. The important thing is to learn from it and to come back stronger than before. As to Bayern Munich nothing could have gone better for them in London. They had given their opponents front row seats to their own spectacle. Everything they wanted to do happened. I could only imagine what would have been to be a Bayern fan last night. As I said at the end of my analysis for the previous Day 1 in my opinion this season in the Champions League Bayern Munich will be one of the top four teams to compete for the title. Still a long way to go but it was surely a pretty good start.
The game from Wednesday night between Barcelona and Inter from the group of death offered us also a great spectacle. A little bit different but still great. Why? Because there are only two teams in Europe with rich history whose players could be described both as footballers and as warriors. These clubs are Atletico Madrid and Inter. It is always tough to play against them even for most successful teams and especially in the Champions league. Barcelona made no exception. They had to go through hell in order to break the shell which seemed impossible to be broken. The game between Tottenham and Bayern from the previous night showed us the better side, the offensive side of football. Both teams had only one thought in mind. It was how to attack. What we had last night was exactly the opposite. Physical power and strong tackles took over beauty and creativity. This fitted perfectly Inter's agenda for the match. It's their style of playing. Scoring early in the 2 minute helped them even further to take control of the action. Barcelona tried really hard to pressure them high on the pitch but soon it became very clear how well prepared for that were all Inter players. They seemed to find so effortlessly the gaps in Barcelona's siege. They managed to organise few clinical counter attacks and only luck and karma saved Barcelona conceiving even higher score in the first half. Cules didn't manage to adapt at all to their opponents style of playing and couldn't find a way to conquer Handanovic. In my humble opinion the troubles in general for Barcelona's defense come from Gerard Pique.
He was born in Barcelona. But before he signed his professional contract with the club he was given free of charge to Manchester United in 2004 where he mostly played for the second team since he was still too young at the time. He is one of the fans favourite players. He is strong and tall which are good for a defense player. However his lack of speed makes Barcelona very vulnerable. It was obvious how on few occasions he is unable to keep up with the fast running Inter offence line. It will be even more impossible for him to outrun the clinical attack of Liverpool and Manchester City just to name a few.
Pique is the weakest point in Barcelona's team which might prevent them of reaching the final. The second half started better for Barcelona. They came out more aggressive totally determined to turn the game in their favor. This definitely wasn't the night of Messi and from the first 45 minutes neither seemed to be the night of Luis Suarez. With Griezmann still adapting to his new team the question was who was going to score? It was obvious that the pressure on Inter was increasing by the minute and the goal was inevitable. Then it came 58 minute when finally Suarez managed to level the score.
This restored immediately Barcelona confidence and gave them a chance to take all the points. Inter didn't change much their strategy as they continued to defend letting themselves be satisfied with the draw. But in football there are infinite examples where such schemes had failed the teams using them. Inter made no exception. Luis Suarez doubled his contribution in the 84 minute. Only then Inter players put their efforts into front lines and tried to win back what they have already lost. Unfortunately it was much too late. So the game ended with three vital points for Barcelona in the race for the first two slots in the group. They share the top of the table with Dortmund with 4 points each.
Luckily for Barcelona they didn't have to remember Mourinho's celebration after the lost semifinal against Inter in April 2010. During the game I even thought that the image of him running on the pitch with his hands raised in the air was haunting them and giving them nightmares. Barcelona managed to overcome a very tough opponent but still there is far more to be done before they seal their advance in the next round.