Bayern Munich 7-0 Barcelona:When Barcelona’s Tiki-Taka Got Destroyed by Bayern’s Sheer Will

Barcelona’s 2010/11 team is considered one of the best teams in the club’s history. The team featured the iconic trio Xavi-Iniesta-Busquetes and on top of that a Young Lionel Messi.

On the other hand, Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 season was one of the most effective and strong teams in the UEFA Champions League that has ever witnessed.  They came to the edge of every trophy in the previous season and failed to win any of them. So it was natural to see a good match-up when these two teams were to face each other in the semi-finals of the 2012/13 Champions League.

Barcelona was the favorite considering the firepower they had in the team. Bayern was also not a weak team by any means, reaching the finals the previous season. But the result of this match shocked the world so much that people were saying that Barca’s infamous style of play which was Tiki-Taka was destroyed that day. So, we are going to delve into this game analyzing what Bayern did to achieve this incredible feat.

The perspective of the two Teams Going into the Match

The two teams were in different conditions going into the match. Barcelona failed to win any major trophies in the previous season and also lost their star manager, Pep Guardiola. On the other hand, Bayern also needed to win the major trophies in the season, considering they lost almost all the major trophies in the previous season and not by a very big margin, losing the UCL finals vs. Chelsea. So, it’s fair to say that both teams needed to win this match to salvage their season.

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How did the Two Teams set up in the Match

Barcelona came to the match in a 4-3-3 formation, going with the proven tactics that worked for them previously. The iconic midfield trio of Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets was joined by the front three of Messi, Alexis Sánchez, and Pedro. In the backline, Pique and Bartra were center backs, and Dani Dalves and Jordi Alba were fullbacks. So, the players were familiar with each other and knew what to do to win.

Coming onto Bayern, They came IP with a 4-2-3-1 with a couple of key players missing. The most notable were Toni Kroos and Mario Mandžukić. The team consisted of the legendary wingers, Robben and Ribéry with Mario Gomez in front. Midfield was manned by Schweinsteiger, and Javi Martínez with Müller as the attacking midfielder. The backline for Bayern was really good at that time with Boateng and Dante as the centre-backs and Lahm and Alaba as the fullbacks.

So looking at both teams, there are noticeable differences between them showing their tactics somewhat. Barcelona lined up as the passing team going central in their attack and Bayern consisted of physically superior players which indicated a more direct approach in the game.

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Talking about the match, Bayern was instructed incredibly by the manager to stop Barcelona’s play. Bayern’s tactics was to press Barca relentlessly and they were set up to press the Midfielders mainly. To Cripple Barcelona, they needed to shut the central zone down. And they did so wonderfully, Bayern did not press that high until it came to either of the three midfielders. So Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets were trying to rotate their position as they were familiar with each other.

But Bayern countered this with their plan of not marking them individually. Instead, they marked the zones. The players knew what they needed to do to stop Xavi or Iniesta from playing those vertical balls that made them so dangerous. Also, the two Wingers Robben and Ribery were instructed to press the central zone and the opponent fullbacks.

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All of these contributed to making the Barcelona team crippled as they couldn’t play their game. Messi was also nowhere to be seen during the match because of the midfield being crippled.

So, the question that arises here is how Bayern scored four goals. To answer it simply, they played long balls. The physical superiority favored Bayern winning the headers from the Barcelona players and then using the excellent wide wingers to their strength. Sure two of the goals can be argued that they were fair or not but they take nothing away from the Bayern performance that night

Using this tactic, Bayern prevented Barca from doing anything with the ball leading them to fail to make any substantial chances finishing the match goalless. This result was a shock to everyone as fans didn’t think that it was possible to stop Messi from scoring a goal with all of the three Iconic midfielders present in the team. But Bayern made it possible by hard work and clear strategy. They were clear about what they needed to do to win and they did. It was a pure example of how a team can win matches that seem impossible with hard work and teamwork.

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Bayern went on to win the 2nd leg 3-0 and then won the final defeating Dortmund 2-1. Bayern also won the Bundesliga by a large margin and also won the DFB Pokal that season making it a very remarkable season that is still being remembered by the fans today.