After a torrid summer, highlighted by Lionel Messi's heartbreaking farewell, Barcelona have a point to prove this season and convince the public that they can win titles without their long-serving stalwart.
Messi played a prominent role in helping the Catalans establish a long-term dominance of Spanish football and grow into one of Europe's fiercest sides. However, as Sports Today covered in extensive detail over the summer, the legend is no longer with Barca.
The one thing Barcelona fans should take comfort with the performance against Granada is the scoreline. The rest of all was atrocious, especially what Koeman is doing to this side.
What did we witness last night at the revered Camp Nou! The Cathedral of 'Tiki-Taka' witnessed an atrocious performance on its pitch, which would have left the earlier generations shell shocked. The fact that Barcelona ended the match with Pique and Luke De Jong as the centre forward paints the reality at Barcelona.
Barcelona should consider themselves lucky to have garnered a point out of this match. We may have created more chances, but none of them was clear cut by the usual Barcelona standard. Ironically, Ronald Araujo scored the equaliser, he was the only player who looked like scoring a goal in the whole match.
Bayern bossed Barcelona on the Camp Nou pitch like they were taking an evening stroll. Barcelona came well short of putting up a fight. Whether they were interested?
The final whistle came with a huge sigh of relief for many fans including myself. There was a sense of relief that this result was somewhat justifiable to ourselves. This wasn't a humiliation, and Bayern didn't have that many chances also.
In all this, we also validate an unpleasant truth which we all knew beforehand but was not willing to accept. This match showcased the gap between FC Barcelona and other superpower clubs in Europe. We are technically a mid-table team in Europe. Bayern played in second gear for most of the game, shifted momentarily to third gear to score the goals and went back. It was a stroll in the park.
