Bayern Munich 6 Porto 1 [Bayern win 7-4 on agg].
Porto came apart at the seams on Tuesday evening and so did Pep Guardiola, though fortunately the damage to the Bayern Munich manager proved far less superficial than that inflicted by his team on their Portuguese opponents.
Bayern thrashed Porto 6-1 in the Champions League quarter final at the Allianz Arena, overturning a 3-1 first-leg deficit and so exciting their manager that his trousers split open. Undeterred the Spaniard continued to prowl the touchline, sending Bayern fans into ever greater raptures as the 44-year-old revealed his navy blue y-fronts and even a bit of bare skin.
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Yet the wardrobe malfunction was the only thing that didn't go according to plan for Guardiola on an evening that he described as being "about life or death".
It wasn't, of course, it was just a game of football that Bayern had to win convincingly if they were to make it into the last four of the Champions League. And win convincingly they did, scoring five goals in an extraordinary first-half. Thiago Alcantara opened the fun on 14 minutes, and Jerome Boateng doubled the advantage soon after to level the aggregate score.
Robert Lewandowski scored the first of his two goals on 27 minutes to put Bayern ahead in the tie and added a second five minutes before the break. Sandwiched inside his brace was a strike from Thomas Muller as Bayern battered their visitors beyond recognition.
Jackson Martinez got a consolation goal for Porto in the second-half but the last word was Bayern's, Xabi Alonso scored from a free-kick two minutes before the end after Ivan Marcano had been sent off for a second bookable offence.
"I am the coach of extraordinary players, I didn't expect such a first-half" admitted Guardiola, who warned the world that there is more to come from his side. "We can still play better. We lost the ball here and there and we can improve on that."
The thrashing was Porto's first defeat in this season's Champions League and coach Julen Lopetegui conceded that his side froze in the first-half. "It just turned bad very early on and it became difficult for us to play our game against such a good team," he explained. "We lost the game in those 20 minutes in the first half. We tried to change things in the second half and I think we improved a bit but it was too late."
Lopetegui tipped Bayern as "the favourite to win the title" and on the evidence of Tuesday night's display it will take some performance to derail the Bayern juggernaut. Even their players were surprised by the quality of their football against Porto with Thomas Muller admitting that "we all had hopes, but no one expected that".
Asked what had inspired the performance, Robert Lewandowski replied: "We are FC Bayern Munich. We knew we had to step on the gas, but to go five goals up at half-time is really crazy."
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