{"id":115724,"date":"2015-05-13T08:01:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T08:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=115724"},"modified":"2015-05-13T08:01:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T08:01:02","slug":"barca-in-champions-league-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=115724","title":{"rendered":"Barca in Champions League final"},"content":{"rendered":"

-Barcelona will meet Real Madrid or Juventus in final<\/strong>
\n-Spanish club remain on course for treble<\/strong>
\n-Bayern end four-match losing streak<\/strong>
\n-Neymar, Messi and Suarez have 114 goals in 2014-15<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barcelona reached their first Champions League final since 2011, despite Pep Guardiola\u2019s Bayern Munich salvaging pride in the return leg in Germany.<\/p>\n

Trailing 3-0 from the first leg, Bayern revived their hopes through Medhi Benatia\u2019s early downward header.<\/p>\n

Barca levelled when Luis Suarez squared for a tap-in from Neymar, who drilled in after the pair combined again.<\/p>\n

Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller both curled in as Bayern won on the night, but Barca still progressed.<\/p>\n

And the Spanish club\u2019s success means the tantalising prospect of an \u2018El Clasico\u2019 showpiece against Real Madrid in the 6 June final in Berlin remains alive.<\/p>\n

Their La Liga rivals must overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit against Italian champions Juventus on Wednesday for the opportunity to defend their European crown against Barca.<\/p>\n

Match facts<\/strong>
\nBayern attempted 19 shots, the highest tally recorded against Barca in the Champions League since Schalke in 2008<\/em><\/p>\n

Only Cristiano Ronaldo (38) and Lionel Messi (26) have scored more Champions League goals since start of 2012-13 than Robert Lewandowski (22)<\/em><\/p>\n

Barcelona have reached their 18th European final \u2013 an all-time record<\/em><\/p>\n

Bayern stopped Barca equalling their record winning run of 10 straight Champions League victories<\/em><\/p>\n

Few outsiders had given German title-winners Bayern any chance of overturning the visitors\u2019 advantage after a clinical victory at the Nou Camp last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

And ultimately they were proved right as the Spanish league leaders comfortably maintained their ambitions of a La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey treble.<\/p>\n

But Bayern were left wondering what might have been after wasting several chances and failing to keep out Barca\u2019s potent attack with some hazardous defending.<\/p>\n

Guardiola\u2019s side had made the perfect start through Benatia\u2019s first Champions League goal. The defender was allowed a free header to nod into the bottom left corner from 15 yards.<\/p>\n

But the optimism that swept across the vast majority of the Allianz Arena lasted less than eight minutes.<\/p>\n

Guardiola, in charge of Barcelona between 2008 and 2012, insisted his team would attack sensibly and patiently as they aimed to become only the second team to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit in a Champions League knockout tie.<\/p>\n

\"_82950325_f52e56e8-924e-44e3-acf5-f1c636952294\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Bayern were guilty of naive defending as their early lead on the night was wiped out.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi\u2019s perfectly weighted pass allowed Suarez to run beyond the home defence, before the Uruguayan unselfishly squared for team-mate Neymar to roll in.<\/p>\n

Bayern, still encouraged by their vocal fans, continued on the front foot and created several chances, squandered most notably by Muller and Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

But the tactic left them vulnerable \u2013 and the Bundesliga champions were punished again on the half-hour mark.<\/p>\n

The home side were short of numbers defensively as Suarez and Neymar sprung forward, with the former Liverpool striker again teeing up his team-mate who had time and space to chest down and drill into the near corner.<\/p>\n

That goal effectively killed off the tie, leaving Bayern needing to become the first team since 1994 to score six times against Barca.<\/p>\n

Barca, who need one win from their final two matches to regain the Spanish title, removed Suarez at the break after the striker complained of a tight hamstring and offered little attacking threat in the second half as Bayern fought back.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski showed neat footwork to create space and precisely finish, before Muller guided into the same bottom corner from 20 yards.<\/p>\n

But it was too little too late as Barcelona moved within one victory of their fifth European crown.<\/p>\n

\"Barca<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Guardiola<\/a><\/p>\n

\"_82950020_bayern\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bayern<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Barcelona will meet Real Madrid or Juventus in final -Spanish club remain on course for treble -Bayern end four-match losing streak -Neymar, Messi and Suarez have 114 goals in 2014-15 Barcelona reached their first Champions League final since 2011, despite Pep Guardiola\u2019s Bayern Munich salvaging pride in the return leg in Germany. Trailing 3-0 from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":115727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-115724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}