Sports

Barcelona Knocked Out Of Champions League, Bow To Three-star Bayern Munich

Barcelona failed to reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 18 years Wednesday night as they fell to a 3-0 defeat against new nemesis Bayern Munich.

The memory of Barcelona crashing out of the competition will linger for a very long time as goals from Thomas Mueller and Leroy Sane gave Bayern a 2-0 half-time cushion in falling snow at the Allianz Arena.

There were no spectators to behold the shame of the Blaugrana due to high numbers of Covid-19 cases in Bavaria.

Teenager Jamal Musiala grabbed Bayern’s third in the second half to seal Barcelona’s fate.

Bayern, who also beat Barca 3-0 at the Camp Nou when the sides met last September, had already qualified for the knock-out stages as Group E winners.

They now join Liverpool and Ajax with a perfect six victories from six games in the group stage.

However, for the first time since the 2003/04 season, Barcelona will not be in the draw for the last 16. The 2021/2022 round of 16 Champions League draw comes up next week Monday.

Benfica’s 2-0 win at home to Dynamo Kiev means Barcelona finish third and drop to the Europa League.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.