Barca fortunate Bayern didn't score 'significantly' more goals – Nagelsmann

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Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann discussed his team's triumph over Barcelona in midweek. Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann believes his team would have won by a larger margin had they not taken their foot off the gas pedal in Wednesday's rout of Barcelona in the Champions League.

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Bayern Munich dominated and outplayed Barcelona 3-0 in Tuesday, eliminating the struggling LaLiga giants from the Champions League. Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, and Jamal Musiala all scored for the group winners, who went through to the knockout stage with a perfect record. Muller and Sane gave Bayern a 2-0 halftime lead before Musiala added a third shortly after the hour mark at Allianz Arena.

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Bayern's goal difference of +19 during the group stages has only been bettered once in Champions League history when they scored 22 goals and surrendered only three. Paris Saint-Germain (+21 - F25 A4) in 2017-18. Bayern head coach Joachim Nagelsmann afterwards said that Barcelona were fortunate not to have allowed more goals in Munich. He told DAZN, We played against an opponent who, of course, has a very large name and we actually had to win today.

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We've never really allowed it to develop fully. We certainly defended deeper in the second half and allowed them have the ball a little more, but I believe we could have scored much more goals than three if we had put it on correctly. Bayern joined Liverpool and Ajax as the third team to win all six Champions League group stage matches this season.

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This is the first campaign in which more than one team does this in the same season, and Bayern Munich is only the second team in history to do so twice (also in 2019-20), alongside Real Madrid (2011-12 and 2014-15). Nagelsmann responded when asked if Bayern are favorites to win the Champions League:

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Who is the favorite?

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Of course, being one of the favorites is a personal need for us. We'd like to win the Champions League again, and some of us would like to win it for the first time. We need to maintain the same level of performance in the knockout stage. This is something I believe my team is capable of accomplishing. But, in the end, all that matters is that you do it. We're waiting for our opponent now, and then we'll prepare, but there's still time. Following their loss to Bayern, Barcelona was relegated to the Europa League/UEFA Cup for the first time since 2003-04.

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It's the fourth time Barcelona has been eliminated in the Champions’ League group stage, following 1997-98, 1998-99, and 2000-01, and the second time they've been relegated from the Champions’ League group stage since 2000-2001 (to play the UEFA Cup). Barca's tally of two goals after six group stage matches is their lowest ever in the Champions League, and they have only conceded more goals at this level in 1997-98 (14) than they have this season.

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I believe the club can recover," Nagelsmann said of Barcelona. "It's still one of the most prestigious clubs in the world." We deserved to win today, and in both games, we put in outstanding efforts, and our victories were well earned. I believe Barcelona is a club with a lot of knowledge and fantastic people. Not only Xavi, but also the back up players who will make sound decisions for the club. I mentioned in the press conference prior to the game that dealing with more than €1 billion in debt on a daily basis is difficult. It's about having to make really difficult decisions. This may take some time.

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If something were to happen to us, I'm confident it would take a long time for us to recover and become successful again. I wish them all the best, and I am hopeful that the club will revert to its former glory soon.

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