10 facts after Messi suffered humiliation to Bayern on historic night

Football
By Waweru Titus | Aug 15, 2020
Football - Champions League - Quarter Final - FC Barcelona v Bayern Munich - Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal - August 14, 2020. Barcelona's Lionel Messi looks dejected after the match. [Photo: Reuters]

Spanish giants Barcelona were humiliated and demolished 8-2 by German side Bayern Munich in a one-sided UEFA Champions League clash on Friday night.

Thomas Muller scored a brace for brilliant Bayern in the quarter-finals, who led 4-1 after 31 astonishing minutes, as six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi and his teammates were condemned to the thrashing behind closed doors in Portugal.

Due to the technological advancement in football, elite team sports companies invest substantial resources to analyse performance.

Opta Data has a long-established, consistent list of ‘Event Definitions’ in football that are adhered to across all data collection centres and that is recognised as de-facto standard.

The data is collected in an organised way and this helps the creation of datasets useful for diverse research fields.

Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller celebrates scoring their fourth goal with teammates. [Photo: Reuters]

With the help of Opta data, here are 10 facts after the Barcelona humiliation:

1. Barcelona became the first team to ship four goals in the first half of a Champions League knockout game since Porto conceded five to Bayern in April 2015, in the second leg of a quarter-final.

2. Barcelona had just seven shots in the entire match.

3. Barcelona's oldest starting 11 for a Champions League match was picked apart. Their average age was 29 years and 329 days.

4. Bayern became the first team to score eight times in a Champions League knockout game, while Barcelona conceded eight for the first time since losing 8-0 to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey in 1946.

5. Robert Lewandowski reached 50 Champions League goals for Bayern in what was his 60th game for the German giants in the competition. That is a record only ever bettered in the competition by Cristiano Ronaldo, who reached the landmark in 50 games for Real Madrid.

6. Bayern's fourth goal arrived in the 31st minute, making it the earliest point of a Champions League knockout game by which a team has scored four.

7. Three of the coaches in the semi-finals will be German, with Bayern's Hansi Flick joining RB Leipzig's Julian Nagelsmann and Paris Saint-Germain's Thomas Tuchel. The Champions League has never before seen three head coaches from a single nation represented in the semi-finals.

8. Lewandowski became the fifth player in European Cup or Champions League history to score in eight consecutive games, and the first from Bayern to achieve the feat.

9. Thomas Muller has now scored more goals in the Champions League against Barcelona than any other player. His fifth and sixth came before the break, meaning Muller has overtaken Andriy Shevchenko, who netted five in his career against Barca. This is just Muller's fifth appearance against Barcelona in the competition.

10. Muller's double took him to 23 career goals in the Champions League knockout stages, and he stands third on that list behind Cristiano Ronaldo (67) and Messi (47).

Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski in action with Barcelona's Luis Suarez, Clement Lenglet and Sergio Busquets. [Photo: Reuters]
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