Raphinha's hat-trick inspires Barcelona to demolish Bayern Munich | Champions League

This wasn't just a victory, it was an exorcism olés rang out in the Olympic Stadium as Barcelona laid their spirits to rest high on Montjuïc Hill.

Bayern Munich, the team they couldn't beat, the ogres who beat them eight times in Lisbon, beat them six times in a row for a combined score of 22-4, and they haven't even conceded a goal the last four times conceded goal, the team that was just too good, left here in pieces and expertly cut into pieces. Barcelona prevailed four times, with Raphinha scoring a hat-trick and Robert Lewandowski scoring another in a 4-1 win.

“You owe us something,” Barcelona President Joan Laporta said to Hansi Flick; Here the coach, who, like Lewandowski, had been on the other side on the evening of the 8-2 humiliation, the ultimate symbol of the Catalans' decline, was paid back in full. “It’s not about the past; “It’s about the here and now,” he emphasized.

Right here and now his team is looking really good again. A decade since they last won this competition, how much they needed this. Whatever they did, an exhibition in the cut.

This was a football match played on a cliff, and what made it even more enjoyable was that there was a sense of danger in every movement. Barcelona were so determined to play high, and Bayern were so willing to do something similar, that it resulted in a game that was crammed into tight spaces and a chasm on both sides.

The threat was always there, not least because instead of weaving around the drop and nervously looking down, they sprinted around it, fighting for every inch where there was no space and no chance of releasing the pass that allowed them would make it possible to go beyond this border, where there were plenty of them.

Barcelona were the first to do so after just 45 seconds. Alejandro Balde found Lewandowski, who resisted the challenge and dropped the ball to Pedri, who passed it on to Fermín López. His pass was great, Raphinha sprinted free, got around Manuel Neuer and made Montjuïc break out. And so it began, a beautiful and very entertaining line that both teams took.

Bayern took advantage next, with Harry Kane heading in to make it 1-1 after six minutes, or so he thought. VAR ruled this out for offside, but not for the next 10 minutes later. This time it was Serge Gnabry who cut in behind Barcelona and delivered the cross while Kane side-footed a volley past Iñaki Peña.

Chasing offside positions is a policy – Barcelona have caught their opponents more than twice as often as any other player in Europe this season – but at this point it felt overly risky due to their inability to catch the passer quickly achieve enough to make it effective.

Bayern took advantage of the situation, more chances seemed only a matter of time, and Kane's beautiful ball to Raphaël Guerreiro almost scored the second goal. And yet they also made big jumps – although not quite as high – Barcelona found their way more and more into the game, step by step, then suddenly in 40-meter jumps, and it was Bayern who were caught.

The first time they were, with a simplicity that infuriated Vincent Kompany, with the hint of an advance that did. Lamine Yamal cut off a pass forward, eliminating two lines. Kim Min-jae jumped and misjudged the flight. López, who was lingering behind him with one hand behind him, turned, ran into the penalty area and lifted the ball past Neuer. And Lewandowski shot it into the open goal.

It was a plan, and it was about to come together, to be executed again with a precision that would prove breathtaking, from end to end with lightning speed.

Another goal followed shortly before half-time. Pushed deep into his own half, Marc Casadó appeared to be cornered, but he fought a way out and hit a beautiful long diagonal ball to Raphinha. He ran to the edge of the penalty area and shot between the legs of Dayot Upamecano, which flew into the far corner.

And so Bayern looked for a way back after the half-time break, but they did it again. Lamine Yamal's great ball shot into the left area and Raphinha was away again, firing a perfect finish past Neuer.

What an evening it had been, a satisfaction for the winger who was pushed out the door. Released and embraced, life is different now. For all.