Barcelona Player Ratings vs Bayern Munich: No positives; 3 or lower for every player

Barcelona crashed out of the UEFA Champions League on Friday after suffering a humiliating 8-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich.

In a horrible start to the game, Barcelona were behind with less than 4 minutes on the clock, with Thomas Muller putting Bayern Munich ahead. The Catalans did level the score shortly after, thanks to a bizarre own goal by David Alaba. But, that was as good as it got for Barcelona in the first half as after a few minutes of positive football, the tie was as good as done by the half hour mark.

In a nine-minute period, Bayern Munich saw Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabry and Muller score to head into the break with a 4-1 lead. The second half was more of the same, as after Luis Suarez pulled a goal back for Barcelona, Bayern scored four further goals to make it an embarrassing day at work for the Catalans.

Joshua Kimmich first restored Bayern’s three-goal advantage in the 63rd minute before Philippe Coutinho made it a day Barcelona fans would never forget, albeit for all the wrong reasons. The Brazilian, linked with Arsenal lately, first provided the assist to Robert Lewandowski, before scoring a brace against his parent club to round off the 8-2 win.

The result meant Barcelona had suffered their biggest defeat in over half-a-century, crashing out of the UEFA Champions League in a mortifying manner. The Hard Tackle now runs the rule over Quique Setien’s men following an abominable cumulative display.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen: 3/10

This was perhaps, the most frustrating and embarrassing outing for ter Stegen since he joined Barcelona. That is simply because even though he let in 8 goals on the night, he could have done very little to stop any of those Bayern Munich efforts and was let in majorly by his defence.

Still managed to make 5 saves, which reduced the extent of the humiliation. That said, his passing was uncharacteristically sloppy, although the Barcelona defenders are to blame to a great extent there as well, after constantly putting him under pressure with their lethargic passing. Will look to move on from this quickly.

Nelson Semedo: 1/10

Absolutely horrendous to say the least. Semedo produced an absolute disaster-class on the right side of the Barcelona defence. Constantly suspect, the Portuguese had horrible positioning all through the game while also showing ridiculously poor defensive acumen when he was in the right place at the back. Amateurish in the way he dealt with the key moments on his flank.

Gerard Pique: 2/10

Part of the error-prone Barcelona defence that wilted to the powers of the Bayern Munich attack. Pique was fairly solid in the first half and was actually showing decent nous despite the fact that his side let in 4 goals. However, post the Luis Suarez strike, he, along with his partners at the back, just lost the plot and plummeted spectacularly. A night he’ll like to forget quickly.

Clement Lenglet: 2/10

Similar to Pique, Lenglet was incredibly poor, albeit over both the halves. The Frenchman had just 2 clearances and 2 interceptions to show for his efforts and while he boasted an impressive 91 percent passing rate (46/51 completed), his passes in and around the defensive third were poor and put his teammates under pressure. Shockingly atrocious in executing his primary duties.

Jordi Alba: 2/10

Alba was one of the few Barcelona players who made a positive impact early in the game, providing the assist for his side’s first goal, as David Alaba swiped at his low cross to score the own goal. But, post that moment, the Spanish international endured a nightmarish evening and was completely overpowered by Serge Gnabry, bar a couple of positive moments, including a clearance off the line.

Sergi Roberto: 1/10

Barcelona’s right side was bossed all through the game and Roberto had a big role to play in it. The Spanish international set the tone for a disastrous game by losing the ball for the first goal that Bayern Munich scored before being bossed by Alphonso Davies for the duration of his stay on the pitch. Only reason he gets a 1 is due to the chance he created in the first half.

Arturo Vidal: 3/10

Back into the side after serving his suspension against Napoli last week, Vidal was, by far, the best Barcelona midfielder against Bayern Munich, although that does not say much. Still, showed a lot of drive and urgency to get his side out of the mess they found themselves in. Losing the ball 10 times might not have helped, though. Left red-faced after talking up a big game ahead of the tie.

Sergio Busquets: 2/10

Like Vidal, Busquets returned to the midfield after having been suspended last time out. The veteran Spaniard was overwhelmed by the Bayern Munich midfield, though, as he was overrun with ease in the middle of the park. Precise with the ball at his feet, but what good could that have done as long as he did not provide ample cover to the defence? A rare blip, though.

Frenkie de Jong: 3/10

Shunted out to the left side of the Barcelona midfield, de Jong endured a Philippe Coutinho-esque outing, in that he appeared to be like fish out of water in an unfavourable position. Still managed to remain incredibly accurate with the ball at his feet and always looked for vertical releases. Did not offer Alba much support defensively, however.

Lionel Messi: 3/10

This was quite easily Messi’s worst outing of the season. That it came in Barcelona’s final game of the season would probably be eating at him. However, Messi was not necessarily poor more than being left isolated and without any quality support for almost the entirety of the game. When he got on the ball, he still carried significant threat, but was also often crowded out smartly by Bayern.

Luis Suarez: 3/10

Going by his tangible contribution to the game, one can say that Suarez did more than literally each of his teammates. His effort for the goal was top class and finally helped him break his jinx of failing to score outside Camp Nou in a UEFA Champions League game.

But, Suarez absolutely has to own up to his shortcomings as well, having missed 3 quality chances to get Barcelona a look-in in the game, including one early in the game that could have set the tone for a closer game. Another embarrassing figure of his outing was that of his 24 passes, 9 were from kick-off. Time to look for another option if not an outright replacement.

SUBSTITUTES

Antoine Griezmann: 2/10

On for Roberto at half-time, Griezmann showed a lot of urgency and looked to press the Bayern Munich defenders off the ball. However, he was often left isolated and only had 18 touches on the ball while managing to attempt just 11 passes. Could not even manage an attempt on goal. A dismal end to an underwhelming maiden campaign with Barcelona.

Ansu Fati: 3/10

Introduced with 20 minutes left, Fati hardly got a look in. The teenage prodigy completed each of his 6 attempted passes, but was anonymous for the most part.