Sleeping Spanish giants Barcelona will continue their European football in the UEFA Europa League (UEL) after they were dumped out of the Champions League by German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich.
Five-time European champions Barcelona needed to beat the Germans in their final Group E clash at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night to be certain of going through to the next round. In the end, three Germany internationals scored to propel Bayern Munich to a 3-0 home win over Barcelona thereby eliminating the Catalans from this season’s Champions League. The German trio of Thomas Mueller, Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala all scored for the Bavarian giants during the win over Barcelona.
Hosts Bayern Munich were kept at bay for the first half hour of the game by the Barcelona rearguard. The Spanish giants were handed a big injury blow when left-back Jordi Alba pulled up with an injury and that caused a big problem for the Catalanson the defensive front. Bayern Munich thereafter pounced on the defensive uncertainty amongst the Barcelona ranks to take the lead in the 34th minute when Germany national team star Thomas Mueller scored via his head off the cross from Robert Lewandowski.
Another Germany national team player in Leroy Sane added a second goal for the Bavarian giants nine minutes later to leave Barcelona with a huge mountain to climb at the half-time break. The goals from Mueller and Sane gave the hosts a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half.
Young Germany international Jamal Musiala then wrapped up the emphatic victory for Bayern Munich with the third goal just after the hour mark as the Bavarian giants finished their group stage campaign with six wins from six games, while the haul of seven points from Barcelona was only enough for third place in their group and a place in the Europa League.