Barca's win strengthened their “extraordinary” young midfield

Barcelona humbled Bayern Munich in a 4-1 Champions League win on Wednesday night, thanks largely to three “exceptional” young midfielders.

While Raphinha rightly receives plaudits for his superb hat-trick, Barcelona's win was down to the tireless work of Marc Casado, Pedri and Fermin Lopez in the middle.

All three are only 21 years old, two of them are lucky enough to even be in the team.

“If Barcelona had the money, they would have Bernardo Silva, they would have kept Ilkay Gundogan and those two would have played,” Spanish football expert Guillem Balague told the BBC MOTD Champions League Highlights Show.

“The injured ones like Gavi, Andreas Christensen and Frenkie de Jong would have played before two of these three. Only Pedri would be in the squad.”

Instead, it's Casado and Lopez who work with Pedri and slowly become household names.

After keeping Bayern's experienced trio of Thomas Müller, Joshua Kimmich and Joao Palhinha, who have 21 league titles between them, at bay, Barcelona may have stumbled upon the perfect midfield threesome.

Who made up Barca's young midfield trio?

Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock called the trio “extraordinary” and said they “kept Barcelona playing all the time”.

Casado, who Warnock said had a natural “understanding of how to spot danger”, was the deepest of the three midfielders, shielding the defense and winning the ball back for his team.

The former Barcelona B captain only started for Barcelona for the first time this season, but has become a regular in Haasi Flick's side, getting the nod in all Champions League games this season and providing an assist on Wednesday .

“Casado played for Xavi twice last season and Xavi was told that if you brought Casado into the team enough, he wouldn't come out of the team,” Balague added.

“Xavi thought he was too small to be a defensive midfielder, but now he’s there.”

Directly in front of Casado was Pedri, already a superstar and a true master of transition, constantly receiving the ball from his defenders and passing it forward.

Pedri joined Barca from Las Palmas in 2020 at the age of 16, won the Golden Boy Award in 2021 and eventually signed a contract extension that same year that included a €1bn (£846m) release clause.

And finally, Lopez completed the midfield trio, playing as number 10.

The youngster was given license to march forward against Bayern and often ended up being the player furthest forward, setting up both Barca's first and second goals.

“Lopez's understanding of when to go short and when to become a second striker is brilliant,” Warnock added.

From the bench, Barcelona showed even more youthful brilliance when 20-year-old Gavi, who won the Golden Boy Award in 2022 and is recovering from injury, came on for the final five minutes.

Additionally, 17-year-old winger Lamine Yamal played on the touchline, also grabbing an assist and setting up Raphinha for his hat-trick.

The future looks bright for Barcelona.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 10pm on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on Wednesday from 10:40pm to 12:00am on BBC One.