Barca win built off 'exceptional' young midfield

Barcelona humiliated Bayern Munich in their 4-1 Champions League win on Wednesday night, in large part thanks to three "exceptional" young midfielders.

While Raphinha will rightly get plaudits for his superb hat-trick, Barcelona's win was built off Marc Casado, Pedri and Fermin Lopez's tireless work in the middle.

All three are just 21 years old, while two of them are fortunate to even be in the side.

"If Barcelona had the money, they'd have Bernardo Silva, they would have kept Ilkay Gundohan and those two would have played," Spanish football expert Guillem Balague told the BBC MOTD Champions League Highlights show.

"Those who are injured like Gavi, Andreas Christensen and Frenkie de Jong would have played ahead of two of these three. Only Pedri would be in the line-up."

Instead, it is Casado and Lopez who are partnering Pedri and slowly becoming household names.

Having kept Bayern's experienced trio of Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich and Joao Palhinha - who have 21 league titles between them - at bay, Barcelona may have stumbled on the perfect midfield three.

Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock called the trio "exceptional" and said they "constantly allowed Barcelona to play".

Casado, who Warnock said had a natural "understanding of how to read danger" was the deepest of the three midfielders, shielding the defence and winning the ball back for his side.

The former Barcelona B captain only made his first Barcelona start this season, but has become a regular for Haasi Flick's side, getting the nod in all of their Champions League matches this term, and came up with an assist on Wednesday.

"Casado played twice for Xavi last season and Xavi was told if you put Casado in the team enough, he wouldn’t come out of it," added Balague.

"Xavi thought he was too short for a holding midfielder, but he’s in now."

Just ahead of Casado was Pedri, already a superstar and a true champion of the transition, constantly receiving the ball off his defenders and playing it forward.

Pedri joined Barca from Las Palmas in 2020 at the age of 16, won the Golden Boy award in 2021 and, that same year, ended up signing a contract extension which included a 1bn euro (£846m) release clause.

And finally, completing the midfield trio and playing as a number 10 was Lopez.

The youngster was given a licence to roam forward against Bayern and often ended up as the furthest player forward as he assisted both Barca's first and second goals.

“Lopez's understanding of when to be dropping short and when to become that second striker is brilliant," added Warnock.

There was more youthful brilliance off the bench for Barcelona with 20-year-old Gavi, who won the Golden Boy award in 2022 and is recovering from an injury, coming on for the final five minutes.

Plus, 17-year-old winger Lamine Yamal starred out wide and also grabbed an assist, setting up Raphinha for his hat-trick.

The future looks bright for Barcelona.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.