Bayern Munich enjoyed another successful night against Barcelona as they beat them 2-0 at the Allianz Arena.
The Bundesliga side beat Barcelona 3-0 home and away in the Champions League group stage last season, while there was an 8-2 win in the not-too-distant past. That record led to Xavi telling his side ahead of the trip to Munich that they were not going to a “house of horrors”.
Despite a positive first 45 minutes, a familiar nightmare soon materialised for Barcelona as Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sane gave the hosts a quick-fire double after the break.
It leaves Bayern with two wins from two in Group C, ahead of Inter Milan and Barcelona who both sit on three points.
Robert Lewandowski started for the visitors as expected against his former side, while there was a Barcelona Champions League debut for Marcos Alonso.
Barely 20 minutes had been played by the time Lewandowski had two huge chances to mark his return to Munich in style. Gavi played him in on goal for the first, but with only Manuel Neuer to beat the striker lifted his effort over the bar.
Again the goalkeeper denied his former team-mate when Alonso stood up a cross to the back post and Lewandowski saw his header parried away. Neuer also produced an important save with his feet to deny Pedri.
It was a brilliant first-half display from Xavi’s side, the only regret for them that it was goalless at the break.
They had another chance to open the scoring ten seconds after the start, impressive considering Bayern kicked off. Raphinha let fly from the edge of the box, but it whistled wide.
Those misses all proved to be incredibly costly. The hosts took the lead in simple fashion, Joshua Kimmich swinging in a corner and Hernandez ran off Alonso at the near post to thunder a header home.
Barcelona were visibly rattled by the goal and Bayern sensed the moment, doubling the lead less than four minutes later. Jamal Musiala played the ball on to Sane, he drove into the box and passed a wonderful finish into the far corner.
Pedri had a chance to halve the deficit just after the hour mark, after combining nicely with Lewandowski, but his dink over Neuer flicked off the outside of the post and away to safety.
Bayern had chances to further extend their lead, Musiala twice going close from distance as the hosts continued to commit bodies forward despite their position of dominance.
Ferran Torres saw his shot deflected wide in the closing stages, and with that went any hopes Barcelona had of setting up a grandstand finish as they once again came up short against their regular foes.
