Bayern Munich showed Barcelona exactly how dreary life will be without Lionel Messi when it dealt the Spanish team its first loss since the exit of the star forward.
Thomas Müller scored a goal and Robert Lewandowski added two more to help Bayern ease to a 3-0 victory at Camp Nou in their Champions League opener on Tuesday.
Müller’s 34th-minute strike took his career tally to seven goals against Barcelona, including the two he netted in the 8-2 shellacking Bayern dealt Barcelona the last time they met in August 2020.
Without Messi to rely on as it had for years, Barcelona was running scared from the start as it focused on protecting itself from another embarrassing defeat. The final score hid the total dominance of the Bundesliga powerhouse. Julian Nagelsmann’s team turned the once great attacking juggernaut
of Barcelona into a jittery bunch hunkered down in their own area.
Lewandowski capitalized on Bayern’s complete control with goals in the 56th and 85th, both times putting in rebounds from shots that came off the post to the striker.
“We gave little away at the back,” Müller said.
“Going forward, we could have scored one or two more. It’s a lot of fun playing here, the boys enjoyed it.”