In conversation with Gary Neville: 'Barcelona make me think differently about football'

High on the third tier in the nosebleed seats, the 4,600 Bayern Munich fans who’ve paid €100 a ticket are being kept behind as the stadium clears. Some try to start songs to lift spirits, but they’re shocked by what they’ve witnessed. They’ve seen worse, though. In 2009, a Lionel Messi-inspired Barca led his side to a 4-0 victory over Juergen Klinsmann’s Bayern at Camp Nou en route to victory in Rome against Manchester United.

The Catalans were coached by Pep Guardiola that night and Messi scored two and had a hand in the other two, yet Bayern were fourth in the Bundesliga and had been hammered 5-1 by Wolfsburg the previous week.

This Bayern side are German champions and one of the best in the world, but they were blown away by more Messi brilliance. Up in the commentary box in the soon to be renovated main stand, Thierry Henry, a star of the 2009 Barca side, purrs in appreciation. Jamie Carragher chides the former Arsenal player that he had to play out of position for Barca because the other players were so good. Henry can live with that, he achieved his dreams at Camp Nou.

As did Gary Neville, a 1999 treble winner. He also marvels at what he’s just seen. Neville thinks that Barca team which won all six trophies they competed for in 2009 is the greatest side ever and is visibly enthused by Luis Enrique’s current charges.

Neville finishes his work, changes into a t-shirt and leaves the stadium by foot for a walk into the busy Barcelona night. He gets recognised once or twice by delirious fans, but he’s soon walking alongside the Bayern fans who’ve left the stadium. The Bavarians are too solemn to notice anyone - even someone who won the European Cup against their team in the very stadium they’re exiting.

“What a great game of football,” enthuses Neville, as the search for a taxi begins and fans fill the bars on the huge Diagonal thoroughfare. Four hours before the game, Bayern fans had walked down the same road in the sun chanting about their club. A little earlier, Guardiola had taken his players up to the vantage point of Tibidabo mountain, offering a wondrous view of Barcelona down to the Mediterranean. It’s close to Guardiola’s family home and the busy city looks serene from 400 metres up, but any tranquillity would be left behind once Bayern Munich took to the field against Barcelona.

Bayern were confident, though. They’d exorcised the 2009 defeat with a stunning 7-0 aggregate victory in 2013 against Tito Vilanova’s Barca. Now the teams were considered a more even match, but while Bayern enjoyed equal possession in the first half, Barca were far superior and created 11 chances to Bayern’s one. It helped that Bayern had started the game with three defenders. Helped Barca’s opportunities, that is.

“I’m quite a conservative football person when it comes to analysing the game,” says Neville. “I think of football being a war of attrition, about tactics and stopping people. But for some reason the Camp Nou and Barcelona takes you into a place which makes you forget about tactics and makes you forget about defending and the ugly side of the game. It takes you to a place where you think about the brilliance of skill, the importance of a show.”

The cultural differences from a life playing under Sir Alex Ferguson to what he sees in Catalonia are significant.

“The Barcelona players turned up to the game in their own clothes,” states Neville. “Messi had a Marilyn Monroe t-shirt; Daniel Alves had a red jacket, black dickybow and white shirt. I was thinking: ‘What’s going on here?’ As a Man United player, I would have been nervous in my club suit, it would have been an anxious moment. These guys are turning up like they're playing on the park, like it’s a show.

“Pep Guardiola will get some criticism for his tactics, for playing three at the back, but he contributed to what was an incredible game of football. It was the best game I’ve seen for a few years, probably the best since Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid in 2012.

“I felt everything was more football; the intensity of the game, the attitude to be on the front foot. I was mesmerised by the whole night and Messi was sensational, the difference in the end. This Barca team take me to a different place to where I normally am watching football.”

At the end of the game, just before Neymar got that third, the Barca fans in the Almogavers group behind the goal unfurled a banner stating: ‘Next stop Berlin’. They’re closing in on a treble in Enrique’s first season.

“I think Barca are definitely through,” says Neville. “I can’t believe how Bayern Munich can come back, but if they do it will be one of the great comebacks, the great stories of football. But I think Barcelona will score next week. I said a month ago that I thought Barca would be short in the Champions League this season but tonight having watched them I’m half regretting saying it. They look like the best team in Europe.”

Bayern’s players will need to do more than climb a mountain to stop Barcelona reaching their capital for the June 6 final.