Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich: Final score 3-0, Lionel Messi breaks Bayern's back late

That was a crazy and fun way to kick off the Champions League semifinal tie between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, with the Spaniards coming out on top thanks to two spectacular Messi goals.

It was a crazy, fantastically played, and wonderfully entertaining match, but it just couldn't end with the scoreline even. Barcelona came out the victor in Pep Guardiola's return to the Camp Nou, beating his Bayern Munich side 3-0 thanks to a pair of fantastic late goals from Lionel Messi and some icing on the cake from Neymar.

We all knew coming into this match that Pep Guardiola was going to have to roll the dice and do something different in order to catch Barcelona off guard, but no one expected him to go quite so -- creative as he did. Bayern Munich came out in a fairly bizarre formation, with a three-man back line that was man-marking Barcelona's elite front line, and a nebulous midfield that kept shuffling around every time you blinked.

It was completely and utterly insane, but for the most part it worked. Barcelona came out looking for an early goal, but the tactic seemed to knock them a bit off balance and on what few times they managed to penetrate Bayern's defense, Manuel Neuer was more than capable of dealing with the resulting shots. The most notable moment in that crazy early going was when Luis Suarez broke free of that man-marking to latch on to a ball over the top, but Neuer got big at just the right moment and snuffed the Uruguayan's shot with ease.

That opening insanity lasted about 15 minutes, long enough for Barcelona to take a breath to regroup and change plans. Once they did, Pep called for a quick change in tactics, with that bizarre-but-fun-but-crazy formation turning into a 4-4-2 with a narrow but fluid diamond designed to get the ball up the pitch quickly and deny space to Barcelona's talented midfield. It almost worked, with Bayern holding a fair amount of possession and generating a couple good chances that just didn't quite come off right, failing to get a shot on target. They also significantly slowed down Barcelona's attack, though they didn't stop it entirely -- Neuer was forced into more good saves, but he rarely looked particularly troubled in his efforts.

The second half saw Bayern come sprinting out of the gates, pushing at a nearly maniacal pace to try and steal a goal from Barcelona. That momentum didn't last long, though, as the bodies they were throwing forward started exposing them to a very willing and able Barcelona counter attack. Once Bayern re-set and went back to the same diamond as earlier in the match, the Germans were able to stifle Barcelona's midfield buildup again, thanks in large part the the herculean efforts of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm as the box-to-box midfielders on the sides of that diamond. They kept Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic pretty well out of the match, while Thiago Alcantara used his higher position at the tip of the diamond to keep Sergio Busquets off-balance.

That forced Barcelona to start playing longball in attacking, hoofing the ball up to Messi and Suarez and Neymar, and that's an approach that doesn't always work. Especially against an elite sweeping goalkeeper like Neuer, you're relying on the opposing defense to make mistakes, and Bayern just don't make many of them.

Of course, they couldn't stay perfect forever, especially not with Messi on the pitch. The Argentine superstar decided to take over this match all on his own, scoring two utterly fantastic goals, the first with a driven shot that just plain beat Neuer, and the second a cheeky lobbed effort after nearly juking Jerome Boateng out of his boots. The two goals were just three minutes apart late in the match and gave Bayern almost no time to respond, securing a vital lead to take into the second leg in Germany next week. That lead was expanded in stoppage time when Neymar got free on a counter after Bayern had thrown almost everyone forward in a desperate effort to score, left with a simple finish to slot past Neuer.

Bayern played very well for most of the match, but when Messi turns things on like that, well, it's pretty well impossible to stop him. They'll need to do better against him next week if they want to overturn Barcelona's 3-0 lead, and they'll have to be much better in attack after managing exactly zero shots on target all match long. This tie is very much in Barcelona's hands right now, but they'll still have to do well next week to assure they advance to the Champions League final.

Barcelona: Marc-André ter Stegen, Jordi Alba, Javier Mascherano (Marc Bartra 89'), Gerard Pique, Dani Alves; Andrés Iniesta (Rafinha 87'), Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitić (Xavi 82'); Neymar, Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi

Goals: Messi (77', 80'), Neymar (90'+4)

Bayern Munich: Manuel Neuer; Juan Bernat, Jérôme Boateng, Medhi Benatia, Rafinha; Bastian Schweinsteiger, Xabi Alonso, Philipp Lahm; Thiago Alcântara; Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller (Mario Götze 79')