Captain Raphinha scored a brilliant hat trick as Barcelona made a major statement by belting fellow heavyweights Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League on Thursday (AEDT).
But while the final score was decisive, the match could well have swung in a different direction had Fermin Lopez been pulled up for a blatant first half push in the back of Kim Min-jae.
The contact was only slight but was enough for Barcelona’s Lopez to turn, win the ball and provide the assist for Robert Lewandowski’s 36th minute goal against his former club.
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That made it 2-1 despite Bayern having the better of the first half and Harry Kane scoring an excellent goal.
“I feel a little bit sorry for Bayern,” Mark Bosnich said on Stan Sport.
“I thought there was a definite foul by Fermin Lopez on Kim and I thought they were the better team overall (in the first half).
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“The whole team should have protested. It’s a massive moment of the game.
“When you’re in the air – and I know this from a goalkeeper perspective – when you’re in the air, you’re weightless. All it takes is the slightest push.
“That wasn’t even a slight push… the VAR, how you look at that on a replay and don’t say that he’s got a massive advantage from basically shoving him in the back. I just don’t understand it for the life of me.”
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The goal seemed to deflate Bayern and a resurgent Barcelona turned on the style in the second half.
Lamine Yamal, the uber-talented 17-year-old, produced the usual party tricks and a wonderful assist for Raphinha’s third goal.
The game had been billed as a duel between Kane and Lewandowski but Raphinha stole the show and left to a standing ovation.
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Each of the Brazilian winger’s three goals stood out in its own way.
First, Raphinha darted in behind Bayern’s defence to score in the very first minute, then he shot the ball between defender Dayot Upamecano’s legs to score his second just before halftime.
The third goal saw Raphinha display his technique to control Yamal’s cross-field pass on his chest and exploit the gap between two defenders before completing the hat trick.
Barcelona’s fans were again on their feet to applaud when Raphinha, who had also captained the team because of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s injury, was substituted in the 75th minute, leaving him a little fresher for Sunday’s (AEDT) ‘Clasico’ against Real Madrid.
Raphinha’s demolition job on the Bayern defence also means plaudits for Barcelona’s coach Hansi Flick, who was the comprehensive winner against his old team, Bayern, with whom Flick beat Barcelona 8-2 in 2020.
The loss throws Bayern’s season under new coach Vincent Kompany into turmoil.
Bayern began its Champions League campaign with a record breaking 9-2 demolition of Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb but is now 23rd in the Champions League standings, one place below Zagreb, after back-to-back losses to Aston Villa and Barcelona.
Across all competitions, Bayern has won just one of its last five games.
The ease with which Raphinha was able to exploit gaps in the backline could reopen questions about whether Bayern, which has now conceded seven goals in its last three games, remains fragile in defence. – with AP