“People are unhappy. They’re unhappy at teams like Bayern Munich who keep the ball, preserving possession and looking to pass opponents into submission, and they’re unhappy at teams like Chelsea who defend deep, allow opponents to have the ball and try to pick them off on the break. People, over the past fortnight, have declared themselves bored by – and opposed to – both proactive and reactive football. That’s not actually as contradictory as it sounds. We live in an age of extremes. When Barcelona first started to play tiki-taka under Pep Guardiola, they began to achieve unprecedented levels of possession. For the first time probably since Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan almost two decades previously, there was a new philosophy about.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
Why ‘tiki-taka’ was not to blame for Bayern’s loss
“For some reason, narratives need to be dumbed down and simplified, while judgments must be sweeping and absolute. Bayern are humiliated over two legs by Real Madrid and it becomes a case of the “end of tiki-taka”: evidence of the futility of wanting to keep possession at all costs. It’s the triumph of athleticism over skill, destruction over creation, pragmatism over idealism, simple over baroque, the rumpled suit, down-home country gentleman ways of Carlo Ancelotti versus the skinny-tie, urban metrosexual over-sophistication of Pep Guardiola.” ESPN (Video)
Verzweifelt und Verflixt
“On the way to work this morning I’d be stuck in traffic, and and after fiddling a bit with the car’s in-built MP3 player I’d randomly spin the control to a random track. It would land on the Tyrolean folk group Die Ursprung Buam – and a typically foot-tapping ditty called Verzweifelt und verflixt – crudely translated, ‘desperate and confounded’. These two words would sum up my mood completely having witnessed FC Bayern being torn apart by Real Madrid in what had been billed as another night of glory at the Allianz Arena, where my dreams of seeing Bayern in another Champions’ League final would turn into ninety minutes of sheer hell I would never be able to get back.” Bundesliga Fanatic
Bayern Munich 0-4 Real Madrid: Tactical Analysis | Set Pieces & lack of penetration
“This is the time of the year when the going gets tough, and the teams that eventually go on to claim the honours in May, really take their game to a different level. The Champions League semi final is a match that needs not only preparation and hard work in training, but also a bit of luck, and some performances that are at another level. Last season, Lewandowski stole the show against Real, and Bayern’s collective brilliance was too much for Barcelona. This season though, the tables have been turned on Bayern Munich, as Real Madrid, led by Carlo Ancelotti, executed a devastating counter attacking plan to leave Bayern on the wrong end of a 5-0 aggregate score line. Guardiola’s possession based approach, which has certainly had it’s day, now looks like a bit outmoded.” Outside of the Boot
Real Madrid Slam the Door on Bayern Munich
“The three, three chief weapons of the Spanish inquisition are speed, set piece headers, Cristiano free kicks, and … and I think it’s probably time to stop the extended Monty Python metaphor. But, rest assured, I could go on and include things like how Luka Modric is developing into the evolutionary Xavi right before our eyes, or how Angel di Maria has once again been asked to change positions and roles and managed it with total aplomb.” Grantland
Scissors Kick 