- Inter Milan defeated Pilsen at home (4-0), sealing Barça’s Champions League exit. The Milanese, for their part, qualify early for the round of 16.
- Barcelona then lost 3-0 at home to Bayern Munich in the 5th group game.
Spent day for the Barcelona players: First, they had to watch Inter Milan beat Viktoria Pilsen to finalize Barça’s elimination. Afterwards they played themselves, namely in the Camp Nou against Bayern. There it settled a 0:3 bankruptcy.
You could already guess before the 5th match day of the “premier class” that this could happen. Anything but Inter’s win at home against Pilsen would have been a surprise. 36-year-old Edin Dzeko scored twice at Inter. Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Romelu Lukaku, injured 2 months earlier, also scored.
Mané, Choupo-Moting, Pavard
Barcelona already knew before the duel with Bayern Munich that they would continue to play in the Europa League next year after the winter break with the World Cup. This didn’t seem liberating. Sadio Mané opened the scoring in the 10th minute after slipping past Hector Bellerin. Serge Gnabry had launched the left winger worth seeing.
Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting was responsible for the second goal after a good half hour. The long-standing backup striker behind Robert Lewandowski had surprisingly played well recently, and now he refined a counterattack with a callous finish.
Speaking of Lewandowski: The Barcelona striker made his biggest appearance just before the break when he was allegedly fouled by Mathijs de Ligt in the penalty area. The referee took back the penalty after video consultation. Substitute Benjamin Pavard was responsible for the final score with a volley.
Bayern on Barça’s footsteps
The German champions win their Champions League group for the fifth time in a row. Overall it is the 17th time that Bayern have finished their group at the top. Incidentally, only one team has managed to do this more often – FC Barcelona.