3-0 the score line read last night, Bayern Munich one of the top teams in the world had been made to look very ordinary by an extrordinary Barcelona team, and with a two point advantage atop La Liga as well as a Copa Del Ray final in waiting no one would bet against Barca claiming a domestic and European treble of trophies.
They are at this moment in time once again the benchmark of world football, aggressive classy clinical and a joy to watch, Bayern were hounded from the word go and their fatigue having spent the match chasing shadows showed at the end when Barca’s front trio burst into life.
Luis Suarez had narrowly been denied a goal by the leg of Neuer in the first half, but there was nothing he could do about the three that hit the back of his net, first a smashing strike from Messi on the edge of the box after Dani Alves had set him up. Then a piece of brilliance from Messi, a moment of sheer magic that displayed,as he’s done thousands of times before, why he is simply the best in the world or as Franc Ribery once said “there’s him and then there’s the rest”, cutting in from the right he made to go around Jerome Boateng on the defenders right side before cutting the ball back the opposite direction and calmly slotting the ball over the hapless Neuer into the net leaving Boateng in a tangle on the floor and Neuer grasping at thin air.
To top it all off it was Messi who slipped Neymar through on goal, and the Brazillian made no mistake cooley slotting the ball home under Neuer with the Bayern defenders giving it everything to try and close down the Brazillian wonderkid turned world class performer. This has been the theme of Barcelonas season this year, they have been a class above everyone else, Neymar Messi and Suarez have scored over 100 goals between them this season and are miles ahead of every other strike with Real Madrids Ronaldo Bale and Benzema not having even reached the 90 goal mark, their closest opposition this season.
Messi of course has been Barca’s star performer creating chance after chance scoring goal after goal and ripping teams to shreds with his close control, incredible skill and huge hunger to win. With the support of Neymar and Suarez they have become a huge force, Neymar adds the flair which he has done since his early days at Santos, the ease with which he ghosts past other players and the skills he is capable of unleashing on the opposition, while Suarez is starting to pick up where he left off as one of the worlds top strikers, he has started hitting the back of the net at an immense rate over the past few months and has fully settled into life at Barcelona and is producing the goods for his team.
They are clicking and teams fear them once again like they used to in the Guardiola days, and there’s no doubting that this terrible trio will torment every single player and team they play against for years and years to come.
Naoise Ó Gibne 