There was little doubt about who deserved the win on Wednesday night, as Barcelona rolled Bayern Munich over in a 4-1 defeat, setting loose euphoria at Montjuic. The first half hour of the tie was probably more in the favour of Bayern Munich though, and Robert Lewandowski’s goal helped swing things back in their favour against his former club.
The one moment of controversy that Bayern fans may point to was a potential foul by Fermin Lopez on defender Kim Min-Jae in the build-up to the goal. His nudge saw the South Korean defender narrowly miss the ball in the air, and set Fermin through on goal. It was a decision that was reviewed by VAR, but neither refereee nor the video assistant saw sufficient to give a foul.
Lopez was asked about it after the game.
“Well, I think that he is very big to be knocking him over,” Fermin laughed to Movistar+.
¿Fue falta o pillería de Fermín?
🤣 "Kim Min-jae es muy grande como para tirarlo". #LaCasaDelFútbol #UCL pic.twitter.com/WXavRFeT7d
— Fútbol en Movistar Plus+ (@MovistarFutbol) October 23, 2024
“But well, I tried to win the position, I nudged him a little from behind, and it helped me to get a toe on it to get it Robert. The truth is, it was a game where it all happened, and I think we deserved the win.”
Barcelona looked well on top by the hour-mark though, at that point 4-1 to the good, and scoted with all four of their shots on target during the match, albeit they did have chances for more.
“Perhaps after the first goal they had a moment of superiority and created many chances against us, but afterwards we controlled the game well, we took advantage of the opportunities, we had and the whole team played a great game,” he said, noting that Bayern demanded ‘a lot of concentration throughout the whole game.’
The Blaugrana will now look to address their poor run against Real Madrid, who have won all four of their most recent encounters. Lopez grabbed an assist on his return to the starting XI after a month out of action. It was the 21-year-old’s first start of the season for Barcelona, having returned late from the Paris Olympics, and it will be interesting to see if Flick uses him again at the Santiago Bernabeu, or restores Dani Olmo to the line-up.
