FCBARCELONA.CAT

07.04.2009 13:15

Similar paths to quarter finals

Edgar Fornós

FC Barcelona and Bayern de Munich, who meet at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, have both followed very similar paths to arrive at the Champions League quarter final stage.

Both teams finished leaders of their Groups and both of them won four out of the six Group games to reach the knock out stages - Barca beat Sporting twice in their Group, as well as seeing off Basle and Xakhtar at home. Bayern, meanwhile, beat Steaua home and away as well as Fiorentina and Olympic Lyon. With these results, both teams finished top of their groups.

Qualifying stages for Barca

One difference between the two teams is that Barca, after finishing third in the Spanish League last year, had to go through a qualifying round to reach the competition proper, beating Wisla 4-1 over two legs, whilst the Germans entered the Champions League at the Group stage.

Record for Bayern

In the first knock out round, Barca drew the second team in Bayern’s Group – Lyon, whilst the Germans played the runners up to Barca -Sporting. Whilst Barca eased through with a 5-2 win at the Nou Camp following a 1-1 draw in France, Bayern set a new record in the Champions League, knocking 12 past Sporting over the two legs, 5 in Portugal and 7 in the Allianz Arena, with just a single goal from Sporting in Germany in reply.