Will Barcelona ever recover from their 2-8 humbling?
It was 71 minutes on the clock when Barcelona's Lionel Messi had the ball in the middle of the pitch. Two Bayern Munich players surrounded him on his right and two more were on his left.
His teammates remained static and waited for the Argentine to play an incisive through pass. They were spent and shellshocked as the scoreline read 2-5 in Bayern Munich's favour; at full-time, it read 2-8.
Even two days after the Champions League quarter-final in Lisbon, fans, experts and journalists are still struggling to find the right words to adequately describe Barcelona's pathetic meltdown.
Everyone knew that this lacklustre Barcelona team would face an uphill struggle against the record Bundesliga champions. But nobody was prepared for what lay in store.
Barcelona had no answers for Leon Goretzka and Alphonso Davies
As has been the theme throughout the season, Barcelona lacked cohesion and came up second-best in every department against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The German side physically imposed their authority in the game, which was perhaps best exemplified by the duels between Nelson Semedo and Alphonso Davies.
A reverse camera angle captured the moment when Davies hoodwinked Semedo and made the run that led to Bayern Munich’s fifth goal.
One could have noticed the difference between their frames from that angle. The Portuguese looked small and skinny compared to the strong and hulking frame of the 19-year-old Canadian international.
There were other such examples as well.
In midfield, Leon Goretzka was a much more effective and physical attacking threat than Frenkie de Jong who had a decent game if truth be told. But de Jong is a holding midfielder capable of feeding incisive through passes for others.
Goretzka, on the contrary, is like a young Frank Lampard who loves to make late forays into the box. He is not simply content to create but also wants to score.
He hassled the young Dutchman throughout the night, which culminated in the latter’s frustration and complaints to the referee at one point during the second half.
It is also telling that the ageing Barcelona team covered only 98.28 km of ground, in comparison to Bayern Munich's 107.55 km. That shows the amount of intensity that Bayern put into their performance, which was a consequence of having more youngsters in their squad.
Individual mistakes cost Barcelona once again
It is a shame that the Anfield theme for Barcelona continued this season as well.
Last season, it was Jordi Alba’s misplaced header that gave the ball away to Sadio Mane, which led to Liverpool’s opener through Divock Origi. This time, it was a misplaced pass in midfield from Sergio Busquets in the third minute that led to a Bayern Munich counter attack from which Thomas Muller profited.
The second goal scored by Ivan Perišić in the 21st minute came via a misplaced Sergi Roberto pass.
There were flashes of Liverpool as well in the way in which the Bavarians set up a high line. Like Liverpool, they hassled and harried the Catalan giants, trying to nick the ball back at every given opportunity.
Bayern Munich’s seventh goal also came from another mistake, this time by Lionel Messi, after the ball was nicked off him in midfield.
It was ridiculous to see the usually imperious Marc-André ter Stegen look like an amateur goalkeeper, or worse. It was arguably his worst performance in a Barcelona shirt.
He looked clueless every time he had the ball, and Robert Lewandowski almost made him pay in the first half itself. The German looked stunned and looked casual with his passes on many occasions.
Ter Stegen even managed to earn fake sympathy from Manuel Neuer, with whom he does not have the most cordial of relationships.
The redemption of Philippe Coutinho
After spending a year and a half pursuing the Brazilian from Anfield, Barcelona finally managed to land Philippe Coutinho in 2018. Just a year later, though, he was deemed surplus to requirements.
Coutinho's transfer fee was estimated to be around £142 million, and Liverpool utilised those funds wisely to rope in Allison Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho.
The Brazilian, funnily enough, literally funded his former club's UEFA Champions League win in 2018-19. The three players also played key roles in the Reds’ Premier League victory this season, the club's first English top-flight title in three decades.
I had earlier said that Coutinho had the perfect opportunity to extract a modicum of revenge if he could deal some damage to his ‘parent’ club. He did much more than that, scoring twice and providing an assist as well, all after he came on as a second-half substitute.
Coutinho did nothing significant in Barcelona colours, but what is interesting is that both his former employers Liverpool, and his now loan-club Bayern Munich have heaped humiliation and misery on the Catalan giants.
Coutinho has not only set them back by millions of pounds, but has also directly been the reason for the success of Barcelona's bitter European rivals.
The Brazilian has been a kind of ill omen for Barcelona, like the raven from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem. Ever since Neymar left, Barcelona have been looking for their Lenore. But in Philippe Coutinho, they have only found the raven.
It got worse and worse for Barcelona every season
First it was 0-3 in Rome, then it was 0-4 at Anfield, and now it was 2-8 in the Estadio da Luz. It has kept on getting worse with every passing year. It is almost as if Barcelona arrive at the latter stages of the Champions League only to humiliate themselves further.
For three seasons in a row, Barcelona went unprepared to a big European game. Their third consecutive meltdown makes us realise more than ever that it is nothing more than a psychological matter.
Quique Setien’s false promises were there for all to see once again. During the buildup to the game, he was said to have devised a strategy to make Messi more available in the final third of the pitch.
Yet, the Argentine had to assume creative responsibility and was occasionally found in midfield trying to conjure something for his team. It was Messi's pre-assist to Jordi Alba that led to Luis Suarez’s goal which momentarily seemed to have brought Barcelona back into the game.
How can Barcelona recover from their latest European humbling?
Barcelona cannot recover if they do not make wholesale changes starting from the club hierarchy itself.
It is surely a matter of time before Setien is sacked. Sporting director Eric Abidal could also follow suit, according to Sky Sports Italia correspondent Gianluca di Marzio.
Gerard Pique has already offered to retire should 'fresh blood' comes in to replace him. He feels the club has hit rock bottom.
In truth, it is difficult to make sense of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s decisions. Ernesto Valverde should have been fired after the Roma debacle, but he let Txingurri continue. That enabled him to gift the Barcelona fans with the horror show in Anfield.
Maybe, Setien may not be fired after all.
It is also really unfortunate for Barcelona that the pandemic came at a time when they have a weak and inept leader like Bartomeu at the helm. The Barcelona president has already spent a billion pounds on players. But the lack of ticket sales and other merchandise has only exacerbated the Blaugrana's already delicate financial situation.
Barcelona will not recover from the Bayern Munich defeat any time soon. Take it as a note of footballing prophesy.
A change of leader will still not change the fact that they wasted five precious years of Lionel Messi and squandered a combined £407 million on flops such as Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele.
In short, the new dark away kit for the next season perfectly symbolises the dark days ahead for the Catalan giants.