Barca and Bayern dumps their opposition to book a date in Lisbon

Barca haunts Gennaro Gattuso's fighters

Barcelona’s home record in the Champions League has been on a Fort Knox level. And to use Gattuso’s words, Napoli attempted to “climb the Everest”. Napoli started dominant in possession, showing character and no fear, pinned back Barcelona not only in their half but their defensive third of the pitch. They gave Barca an early scare when Dries Mertens hit outside of the post.

Their strong start counted for nothing as the problem was, Barcelona up front were incredible, Lenglet opened the scoring with a majestic header with Messi being something else. Messi was inspirational for Barcelona, finding a way to score when he had no right to. Napoli became the 37th different team Messi has scored against in Europe.  

Napoli kept pushing for a goal, but they seemed to lack the right decision making in the final third. They didn’t make most of their chances, thus, they paid dearly for it.

However, a frustrating night for Griezmann, as he was out there helping out in the defensive midfield, barely seeing opportunities up front. A generous worker he is, but that’s not what he joined the club to do.

FT: Barcelona 3-1 Napoli (4-2 agg.)

The two-legged decimation

A pleasing performance from Flick’s team. Almost everyone watching expected it to be a stroll in the park for Bayern. Robert Lewandowski showing no sign of slowing down, was on the score sheet, took his tally to 13 and still yet, showed his selfless side as he teed up both Perisic and Tolisso to worsen the situation for the Blues.

The Bavarians enjoyed another comfortable win against Chelsea. They extended their consecutive winning streak to 18 games. They were simply too good for Chelsea at the game tonight.

The defending of this Chelsea side was dreadful. Defensively, this has to be among one of Chelsea’s worst season in Europe. Young Chelsea will learn from this, but they will need to defend much better when they are back on this stage next season.

Even if it is the end of the road, you can tell that this is the start of something special at Stamford Bridge under Frank Lampard. And to be fair, it has been entertaining all along. The game with Ajax, an incredible 4-4 draw is one to reckon with. But for now, farewell Chelsea.

FT: Bayern Munchen 4-1 Chelsea (7-1 agg.)

 

Key Stats

• -          Lewandowski has scored in all seven of his Champions League appearances this season.
• -          Barcelona and Bayern are both in the Champions League quarter finals for the 18th time – a joint competition record.
• -          Barcelona are through to the quarter-finals for the 13 consecutive season – a Champions League record.
• -          Barcelona are unbeaten in a record 36 UEFA Champions League home matches (W32 D4).

As it stands, the quarter finals is set as Barcelona would meet Bayern Munich on 14th August for another decider.