Sané seals Bayern Munich’s win against Barça on bad night for Lewandowski

13-Sep-2022 21:00:39 | The Guardian

Perhaps the nicest thing you could say about Barcelona here was that of all their recent humiliations against Bayern Munich, this was by some distance the least humiliating. They moved the ball with verve and purpose, enjoyed some excellent chances, looked at times like the old Barcelona with that vague whiff of sophisticated arrogance. Gavi and Pedri were two of the best players on the pitch.

But winning the argument is a poor substitute for winning games of football. Xavi had it right afterwards when he said that his side had to “learn to compete as Bayern do”. The difference here was not one of talent or of ambition, but of maturity. Bayern soaked up the pressure in the first half and took their chances in the second. Once Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sané had put them clear, they simply slipped into the comfortable old grooves: relentless passing football, players fighting and covering for each other.