Team Focus: Barcelona & Bayern 'Super Favourites' in Duel for Supremacy
Arsene Wenger raised his eyebrows, raised a chuckle, and that showed how much the stakes had been raised.
It was 2012/13, shortly before he came across the modern Bayern Munich for the first time, and the Arsenal manager was asked about his chances in that season’s Champions League. Wenger recalled two incidents from his past, one from his first ever season in the European Cup, the other just two years beforehand.
The 66-year-old spoke of how, in that debut campaign in the competition in 1988/89, his Monaco did feel they might have a chance… until he watched AC Milan in the quarter-final. Wenger then went back to his staff and pretty much said forget it.
“I know who will win it,” he told them. Milan were clearly the “super favourites”. He had identical thoughts about Barcelona over 2008 and 2011, and then Bayern again in 2013. They were all the “super favourites”.
There’s a similar feeling right now, except it’s rather hard to predict who will win it, because that feeling extends to two teams: the current Barca and the current Bayern. It is rare enough for more than one side to look so much better than the rest of the field in any one season, but then these two are performing at a rarely high level.
It is not just how they are battering everyone from Bayer Leverkusen and Olympiakos to other super-wealthy clubs and supposed rivals like Real Madrid and Arsenal. It is the lavish completeness of the wins.
When even close to on song, Bayern and Barca are not just dismantling sides. They are doing so with such decoration, with so many bells and whistles. It is as if, every few minutes, there is something to genuinely marvel at; the kind of magic that would have earned other teams legendary status for even a handful of such moments in the past.
In the second half of the blaugrana's destruction of Roma, Neymar pulled a long ball out of the sky by leaping up and flicking his right foot around his left leg to then set up an attack. It was the type of technique Dennis Bergkamp would have lifted an entire game with in his pomp, but here was just another sensational second of football alongside Leo Messi’s latest scarcely believable finish and Luis Suarez’s innovation.
Bayern don’t have a forward trio with that kind of magic trickery - very few sides in history have - but they probably have close to the same level of quality spread around the side. David Alaba, in fact, arguably personifies them more than any other player. He isn’t a Messi or even a Neymar, but he is a brilliant all-round talent capable of being that brilliant in almost any outfield position on the pitch.
That adaptability reflects the mobility of the team, how Pep Guardiola can reconfigure his midfield so often to also make opposition sides dizzy. In that regard, Messi aside, they are probably closer to his own Barcelona of 2010/11 than the current Barcelona of 2015/16.
The stats in that regard are telling. The rise of Guardiola’s first Barcelona heralded the rise of the super-clubs too, and the accumulation of more and more talent at specific clubs. It is perhaps no surprise that we have seen an increasing concentration of excellence in a few teams over the past half decade.
It is perhaps even less shocking, due to their complimentary club structures, that both of these clubs have provided the most complete teams in that time too; the teams that dominated on all fronts.
Both of these sides bear similarities to those. Bayern have a possession of 67.8% per game, and are thereby the only team to trump Barcelona 2010/11’s 67.5% in that time. The current Barca, however, are the only blaugrana side to get close to the previous Pep team in terms of interceptions, with 16.2 against 18.5, illustrating the intensity of their game right now. This is the combination of art and graft that everyone else is going to have to combat.
Of course, things can drastically change with a spate of injuries - as happened to Bayern in the last two seasons and arguably to Barca in 2012/13 - while the 180 minutes of a tie are short enough for shock results to happen. Luis Enrique himself emphasised that it’s only November, that things can change. It’s going to take a big shift, though, to prevent one - if not both - of these sides reaching the final.
Are Barcelona or Bayern better equipped to win this season's Champions League? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
Blaming Bayern's last season on injuries is not fair... they had a FAR more complete squad than Barça did in 2012/2013 when facing them. Not even close.
Not a surprise. When you take into account the monopoly Bayern have in Germany and Barcelona & Real have in Spain, they should be in the semis every season. It shows what a poor season Real are having that they aren't considered as good as the other 2 mentioned. Bayern's side is the equivalent of having 11 of the top 13 or 14 premier league players in the same first XI and having 25 of the best 35 as their squad. Pretty sure an "all-star" prem XI would compete with Bayern. Having said that, Arsenal won at home and did so convincingly. For all the lack of possession, Arsenal created the best chances and should've scored 5 or 6. Bayern in turn created 2 or 3. Yes the result at the Allianz was convincing in Bayern's favour but Arsenal can capitulate against poor teams! Even without injuries, both Barcelona and Bayern are beatable over 2 legs purely because both have poor defences. I expect both to reach the semis but it's not a given the winner will come from just those 2 imo.
@SteveHyland Oh Steve, Arsenal-Bayern: Bayern had creativity problems and that's all what was to it. Arsenal was very lucky (hand of god and dubious last goal) to win it. And how can you tell Bayern and Barcelona have poor defenses? That's not even a statement. They both have top 5 defenses in the world.
@postzegele Well done for correcting that moron. He clearly has no idea what he's talking about. Just another Premier League fanboy who can't admit his league is inferior...
@alexreg- I like these type of posts. Firstly there's the personal aggressiveness which only those who are weak in real life use online (got to love anonymity!), secondly there's the blanket "you don't know football" type of quote which only 8-year olds addicted to FIFA use and thirdly there's the lack of any counter claim, proof or any sort of constructive, unbiased analysis that proves you are any less than a typical "anti-Premier League fanboy"- to paraphrase your good self. ;-) . If you do have any counter claims, proof or, god forbid, unbiased insight (since you obviously judge every league without prejudice) you like to air then feel free. Failing that, continue with your "EPL is crap" ethos (which like most is borne out of jealousy of viewing figures, revenue etc the prem receives) because it's worked thus far...
@SteveHyland The EPL is an over inflated league. Just because it is competitive, does not make it good. The Indian Premier league is competitive too. There are zero top tier team in the EPL. Man UTD and City have all the money they would ever need to compete with Barca and Real, so whats the excuse for them not performing in Europe? And before you say they have a harder league, actually they don't. La Liga is the worlds strongest league (FACT). La Liga will have a new broadcasting deal for next season, where all the rights are sold together (just like in England). When La liga get a huge boost in money from the around €650-700m it is right now to possibly €900m, the epl will get even more decimated in europe when Sevilla will have the funds to not lose have their XI every year.
@Beastador- How do you come to that conclusion? I don't disagree that Barcelona are better than all EPL teams and Real Madrid could be if they get their XI playing like a team but a league's strength isn't based on the top 1, 2 or even 5. It's the sub-European teams. Sure, the Spanish teams can all pass the ball but nobody ever wins a game by having more passes than the opposition. The 8th placed and lower teams in this country actually try to force the issue against the top teams. That simply doesn't exist outside of the EPL. The TV money doesn't actually mean much without pulling power btw. How many world class players do you think Sevilla would attract ahead of Barca/Real? Even Atletico who won the league recently haven't been able to get world or even 2nd level players joining en masse. If that ever does happen then that just means the top 2 will have less world class players and therefore diminish their team, unless you think every top player would play in Spain?
@postzegele- Firstly, you clearly didn't watch the Arsenal v Bayern game. But for Neuer brilliance, Arsenal could've very easily been 2 or 3 up at HALF TIME. As for creativity problems, is it our fault we defended well then? That's news to me. Never actually seen a team who could just turn up and create loads of chances regardless of how well the opposition defence plays. Maybe you're talking about basketball not football? As for Barca, they shipped 4 against Celta Vigo, a team who have averaged less than 2 goals per game throughout the season (take out the Barca game and they average 1.64/game) and that could've been a lot more. They have also conceded against such amazing attacks as Levante, Las Palmas, Vallecano and Eibar, but no, you're right- definitely a top 5 defence.