Bayern Munich knocks Lionel Messi out of Champions League, again

You must have heard of this saying on the internet: the only certain things in life are death and taxes. It’s time to add another one on the list because it seems like Bayern Munich knocking Lionel Messi out of the UEFA Champions League has become a certainty.

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Before his move to the Ligue 1 side, Messi was Barcelona’s one and only. In the UEFA Champions Legaue, Barcelona and Bayern Munich head-to-head statistics up until Messi’s departure was 4-2 in favour of the Germans, with one draw between them.

In the 2008-09 season’s quarter-finals, Messi shone with his brace in the first leg as the Spanish giants went through with a 5-1 aggregate.

It was in the 2012-13 semi-finals when Bayern started to really annoy the La Liga after advancing to the final with a massive 7-0 aggregate. This was the first time Munich knocked out Messi in the tournament.

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Two years later, Messi and co. took their revenge after beating Munich 5-3 in aggregate in the semi-finals, with the Argentine scoring a brace in the first leg. But, the worst was awaiting Lionel in the years to come.

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Just a year before leaving Camp Nou, Messi and Barcelona faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of Bayern after they lost 2-8 to the Germans in the 2019-20 quarter-finals. Mind you, this was over just one leg due the UEFA wanting to finish the tournaments quickly after the time lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was the second time Munich knocked Messi out.

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Cut to 8th March, 2023, Lionel Messi, although in new threads, was shown the exit by Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockouts for the third time in his career.

The Bundesliga side defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the Round of 16 match after goals from Eric Maxim Choupo-Mouting and Serge Gnabry secured Munich’s berth in the quarter-finals.

One would expect the Argentine World Cup winner to carry much of the threat, which he did, at least in the first half. Messi especially got a brilliant chance in the 25th minute to take the lead when a Nuno Mendes cutback prompted a shot from the forward, but was blocked by a diving Alphonso Davies.

Despite Davies’ block, Messi rose, like he does, and tried to get a shot away amongst the many red shirts inside the box, but to no avail.

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In the 38th minute, Munich escaped a scare after goalkeeper Yann Sommer was trying to be too nifty with his footwork with lurking PSG players around. This resulted in a poor giveaway which saw Vitinha pass it towards an open goal. However, Matthijs de Ligt made a heroic goal-line save to keep the score line at 0-0.

In the second half, it was Choupo-Moting who opened the scoring in the match, and doubled Bayern’s lead in the tie.

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Messi almost scooped up an assist when he curled in a corner kick to find a leaping Sergio Ramos, whose header was equally met by Sommer’s strong hand.

In the 89th minute, Joao Cancelo’s through ball allowed Gnabry to run ahead and slot it past Gianluigi Donnarumma.

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