Munich, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Neymar bagged a pair of goals in the first 30 minutes as Barcelona booked its place in the Champions League final on Tuesday with 5-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich, despite dropping the second leg, 3-2, at the Allianz Arena.
After rolling to a commanding 3-0 first-leg victory through a pair of goals by Lionel Messi, the other two of Barcelona's feared front three took center stage on Tuesday as Luis Suarez set up both of Neymar's goals with excellent assists as the Catalan club rolled into the final of football's most prestigious club competition.
Bayern Munich, meanwhile, came into the second leg knowing they needed to produce a comeback of historic magnitude in front of the home fans to have any chance of reaching the final. They made a good go of it, collecting goals from Robert Lewandowski, Mehdi Benatia and Thomas Muller, but it wasn't enough to overtake Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola's squad continued to be riddled with injuries as Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Holger Badstuber and David Alaba all missed the opening leg and were unavailable again on Tuesday.
Despite being severely shorthanded, the home side had the better of the play early on and hit for the first goal in the seventh minute to give the home fans a glimmer of hope.
Xabi Alonso sent an excellent corner kick into the penalty area where Benatia was left unmarked at the back post for an easy header and opening salvo, cutting the aggregate deficit to 3-1.
But the positive vibes didn't last long as Barcelona found an equalizer in the 15th minute to make it 4-1 on aggregate when Javier Mascherano threaded an excellent pass into the path of Suarez, who squared it back to Neymar and the Brazilian international finished the play with ease.
The Catalan giants then took their first lead of the night on the half hour mark and it played out in similar fashion to the first goal. This time Suarez found himself in acres of space on the right side of the pitch.
He looked up and deftly flicked it across the box for Neymar, who controlled with his chest and rolled it past Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer for a 5-1 aggregate advantage.
As the clubs emerged from the tunnel for the second 45 minutes, Bayern faced the daunting task of needing to score five unanswered goals in order to advance.
The Bavarians pulled a second goal back on the hour mark to make it 2-2 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate when Lewandowski collected a loose ball at the top of the penalty area, sauntered past Mascherano and fired it in behind Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Bayern picked up another goal with 16 minutes to play when Muller stepped into a deft layoff from Bastian Schweinsteiger and hammered it into the right side- netting.
Barcelona held on through three minutes of added time to advance to the final in Berlin to face either Real Madrid or Juventus, while Bayern Munich was eliminated in the semifinal round by Spanish opposition for the second consecutive season.
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