‘Poor and outclassed’: Lampard reacts as Chelsea are crushed by Bayern Munich

Champions League last-16 first leg Chelsea 0 Bayern Munich 3

Chelsea saw their Champions League aspirations crushed by Bayern Munich last night as the Blues were battered at Stamford Bridge.

The German champions inflicted a 3-0 thrashing on their hosts in the first leg of their last-16 tie, a deficit that will take a minor miracle to overturn when the two clubs meet at the Allianz Arena in the return leg on 18 March.

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London calling

Bayern have acquired a habit of humiliating London’s finest, having annihilated Arsenal 5-1 at the Emirates in 2017, and then scoring seven against Tottenham last October in a group match.

Chelsea similarly had no answer to the brutal brilliance of Bayern, although ironically it was a former Gunner who once again did the most damage.

Serge Gnabry scored four goals in the 7-2 hammering of Spurs, and against Chelsea he found the net twice in a superb display of finishing.

The provider on both occasions was Robert Lewandowski, and the Pole added a third for the visitors on 76 minutes to give the Germans a lead that will almost certainly take them through to the quarter-finals.

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Super Serge

Arsenal must wonder how and why they let Gnabry, 24, slip through their fingers in 2016 after four seasons at the club, but at least the fans can now appreciate his tweets.

“North London is RED!!!” he tweeted last autumn after demolishing Spurs, and last night he declared on the same platform: “London still red.”

Count yourselves lucky, Arsenal, that you won’t be meeting Serge and Bayern Munich any time soon.

Bad discipline

A miserable evening for Chelsea was rounded off by the dismissal of defender Marcos Alonso, sent off seven minutes from time for tangling with Lewandowski.

If that wasn’t bad enough for the Blues, there was also a yellow card for Jorginho (for dissent), which rules him out of the return leg.

“Jorginho is done by talking to the ref, which is unnecessary,” rued Frank Lampard, who was also candid in his assessment of his side’s display.

“The performance was poor and sometimes you have to be brutally honest. They outclassed us in every department and it’s quite sobering.

“I’m disappointed we couldn’t do more against them. We have to take it on the chin and work towards getting back to the levels we want to be at.”

Napoli 1 Barcelona 1

In last night’s other last-16 tie, Barcelona came from a goal down to draw with Napoli in Italy.

Dries Mertens put the hosts in front in the first half - a goal that took him level with Marek Hamsik as Napoli’s all-time top scorer with 121 - but Barcelona levelled after 57 minutes when Antoine Griezmann converted Nelson Semedo’s low cross.

The Spaniards lost Arturo Vidal late on when he was dismissed for a second yellow card, but they held out and will be favourites to progress to the last eight when the sides meet at the Camp Nou on 18 March.

“They didn’t hurt us, they tickled us,” reflected Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso. “It went wrong in one moment and they punished us.”

Tonight’s fixtures

There’s a huge game at the Bernabeu this evening as Real Madrid host Manchester City. In tonight’s other last-16 first leg tie Lyon are at home to Juventus. Both matches kick off at 8pm and are live on BT Sport.

Today’s back pages

Bayern Munich and Gnabry cause a ‘power Serge’ at Stamford Bridge

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