Sensing a real opportunity for European success after Barca’s 4-0 capitulation in Paris, Bayern assumed clear favouritism for the competition, coinciding nicely with their 10-2 aggregate annihilation of Arsenal.
Certainly, after handing the hapless Gunners a second straight 5-1 humbling, the Bavarians’ social media team were very upbeat about their team’s chances and couldn’t resist rubbing it in Arsenal’s faces on Twitter, asking: “What time is it? Yep, it’s ten to!”
And judging by the media reaction in the aftermath of the German champions’ humiliation of Arsenal, coupled with the inevitable fact that Barca were surely heading out of the competition, the common consensus was that there wasn’t a team equipped to stop the mighty Bavarian machine on their way to their Holy Grail of winning the Champions League.
However, very few were banking on Barca’s amazing powers of recovery — producing three goals in the final seven minutes in the mother of all Champions League comebacks — the sort of miracle that suggests Barca’s name could be on the top prize in European club football after all.
One thing is for sure, after being roundly criticised for their slow start following their month’s winter hibernation, Bayern are now riding the crest of the wave, firing 25 goals in their last six games and earning the plaudits for their performances, which deserted them earlier in the season under coach Carlo Ancelotti.
However, as the Italian maestro wisely pointed out at last Friday’s news conference: “Too much praise later means many problems.”
Nevertheless, the five-time Champions League winner (two as a player, three as a manager) can be relied on to keep a lid on emotions at Bayern. Safely into the last eight, Carlo, the King of Cool, will be taking it one game at a time while eagerly awaiting next Friday’s quarterfinal draw.
He will know Bayern cannot afford an injury to Robert Lewandowski, while wing duo “Robbery” (Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery) are equally vital to Bayern’s chances of success. Indeed, the Arsenal hammering in London was the first time the veteran wingers have featured together in elite European competition since Bayern gave Ukrainian champs Shakhtar Donetsk a severe 7-0 thumping in March 2015.
Looking at the end game, despite sealing a first away win in nine knockout matches since beating Arsenal over three years ago, Bayern’s form on their travels still leaves a lot to be desired. Sending out the oldest team in Bayern’s illustrious European history, Ancelotti’s Golden Oldies (average age 30.04 ), including the retiring Xabi Alonso, could easily have been two goals down by the time Laurent Koscielny’s sending off rapidly changed the course of the game.
In the meantime, a rarity awaits Ancelotti as he can likely select from a full complement of Bayern players on Saturday in the Bundesliga against Eintracht Frankfurt as Jerome Boateng is in line to make his long-awaited comeback from a pectoral injury. For the first time since January 2010, a Bayern boss can enjoy the rare luxury of choosing from a full-strength squad.
And all this against a Frankfurt side in freefall, who have lost four straight Bundesliga games. Furthermore, Bayern have won seven in a row at home against Eintracht, racking up 21 goals in the process, so expect the Bavarian bandwagon to keep on rolling for a while yet.
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