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Tuesday, 14, Apr 2009 10:00
Barcelona eased into the Champions League last four with a 5-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.
The home side took the lead at the start of the second-half through Franck Ribery, but Barcelona made sure of their progress into the semis as Seydou Keita equalised as the match ended 1-1.
Bayern Munich's ambitions of causing a shock were all but summed up by manager Jurgen Klinsmann, who said before the game that his side were not going to beat Barcelona by four goals and were all but out of the tournament.
The German team showed no real signs of urgency in the first-half and a usually boisterous crowd at the Allianz Arena were almost silent by the break.
Bayern had a couple of decent chances in the opening period, which both fell to Italian striker Luca Toni. His first effort on goal came after Barcelona left-back Eric Abidal was caught in possession and Christian Lell put in a dangerous ball in the area, but Toni wastefully headed over the bar.
Toni was also put through on goal by Marc van Bommel but again he was unable to find the target with a shot from a tight angle.
Reported Barcelona target Ribery engineered a shooting opportunity on the edge of the box, but saw his shot go over the bar.
Bayern gave themselves a glimmer hope at the start of the second-half when Ze Roberto played a through ball for Ribery and the Frenchman slid the ball past Victor Valdes to give his side the lead on the night.
Barcelona were happy to sit back for much of the game, but showed their class when it really mattered and sealed their passage into the last four with 15 minutes left of the game.
It was a typical Barca move as Samuel Eto'o, Andreas Iniesta and Xavi played the ball around in midfield before Keita fired home from the edge of the penalty area.