Bayern de Múnich face Barcelona on Saturday at 18.15 at the Allianz Arena in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, a meeting shown on Disney+ and TV3 that brings back the memory of last year’s 7-1 defeat.
That result was Bayern’s only loss of the season. Since then, they have not lost again and have already won the Supercup and the league. Barcelona arrive chasing their sixth consecutive final, with Aitana Bonmatí still unavailable, and the tie begins with another heavyweight test between two teams that know exactly what the other can do.
José Barcala, who had been in charge of the German club for a little more than a month when Bayern were beaten 7-1 at the start of October last year, said he told his players that if they played the match again the next day, they would adjust some things but keep the same idea. “Quizá fui un poco ingenuo, pero si volviéramos a jugar mañana este partido, ajustaríamos algunas cosas, pero seguiríamos con la misma idea: somos el Bayern,” he said. Barcala added that his players are very mature and know that no two matches are the same, and he said that defeat had not been handled well but now belongs to the past.
Barcala has spent this season making tactical changes to make Bayern more aggressive, fluid and unpredictable, while describing Barcelona as more aggressive and complete than before. He said their positional structure is very different from what teams usually face and that their interactions generate time and space in a highly synchronized way, a combination that has helped sustain their run toward another final. Bayern have the chance to show how far they have come since that heavy loss, but Barcelona’s level and their place in the competition make this first leg more than a rematch.
Barcala’s path to the touchline has been a long one. Formed in A Coruña, where he studied Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, he worked at Deportivo de La Coruña for seven years in different roles before leaving his home in 2017 to grow professionally and learn languages. He later worked in Australia with the lower categories of Brisbane Roar, joined the staff of Girondins de Burdeos through Pedro Martínez Losa, and also worked with the Scotland and Switzerland national teams. He won a domestic double with Servette in Switzerland and said his love of football began in 1994 watching the Súper Dépor and the league lost by Deportivo on the Djukic penalty. “Me enamoré del fútbol viendo al Súper Dépor, aquel del 94 que pierde la liga con el penalti de Djukic, de aquellos futbolistas como Bebeto, Mauro, Fran… A partir de ahí fue como una historia de amor con el club,” he said. “Es el club de mi vida, de mi infancia. Es mi casa.”
He also said that experience changed how he sees the game. “Me ayudó a ver el fútbol desde el prisma de la formación,” he said of one stage of his career, and later added: “Me abrió las puertas del fútbol femenino.” Sunday’s other semifinal pits Arsenal against Lyon, but the night in Munich carries its own weight: Bayern are no longer the team that collapsed in October, and Barcelona are still the team everyone is trying to catch.
