German champions Bayern Munich utterly humiliated Barcelona with an extraordinary 8-2 demolition job that sent them to semifinals of the Champions League.
Thomas Mueller scored twice for a rampant Bayern Munich, who led 4-1 after 31 astonishing minutes, as Lionel Messi and his teammates were condemned to a thrashing that felt like the end of an era for the illustrious Catalan club.
“We feel devastated, although shame is the real word I’m looking for,” said Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, adding that the historic defeat called for urgent changes across the club.
Barcelona coach Quique Setien, who is unlikely to survive the looming inquest, called the drubbing “a tremendously painful defeat”.
Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick hailed an “outstanding” display from his side but stressed that they were firmly focused on the semifinal, which will be against Manchester City or Olympique Lyonnais.
Mueller added: “We had so much fun today. Of course, Barcelona are special, so we had to be even more aggressive and come back again and again.”
“You can imagine we feel good after this match but we have to be quiet and regenerate.”
The scoreline recalled Germany’s 7-1 semifinal win over Brazil in the 2014 World Cup, a game where Flick was on the bench as the national team’s assistant coach.
It began with German champions Bayern Munich grabbing a fourth minute lead when Mueller collected Ivan Perisic’s cross from the left and played a clever one-two with Robert Lewandowski before drilling home.
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But within three minutes Barcelona had struck back – Clement Lenglet’s super long ball found Jordi Alba in space and David Alaba’s attempt to deal with his searching cross ended up flying past his own keeper Manuel Neuer.
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