Bayern exposed by lack of depth

It's a headline this author thought he would never see in this lifetime, but so it came to be in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie between the injury-plagued German champion and an excellent FC Porto team.

Ricardo Quaresma celebrates one of his two goals for FC Porto against Bayern Munich. (Getty) Source: Getty Images Europe

If ever a player was a metaphor for the national team of his birth, Portguese attacker Ricardo Quaresma is it. 

His career has been punctuated by moments of brilliance amid an overwhelming sense he has never quite lived up to the column inches dedicated to his potential. 

Perhaps unfairly set against the backdrop of the parallel emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo, the 31-year-old's story is often told as a cautionary tale of what could have been. 

The way Quaresma played for FC Porto against Bayern Munich this morning, one could be forgiven for frantically Googling the name of the latest talent to roll off the club's production line to see which cashed up European clubs are waiting to snatch him away. 

But the fact is, Quaresma has been through it all before, having done time at Sporting CP, Barcelona, Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Bestiktas and Al Ahly, before heading back to Porto - the scene of his fondest playing memories - last year.

Against Bayern Munich he turned in arguably the best performance of his career, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes, and exposing a truism that applies to even the world's greatest clubs: there's no substitue for depth.

The presiding theme in the build-up to this match was the neon 'no vacancy' sign adorning the German club's casualty ward. It was hard for the cynics within us not to feel a sense of schadenfreude as claims that the club could field an 'injured XI' capable of winning the Champions League emerged.

Finally, one sensed, all that 'Buyin' Munich was going to pay off as stars Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber, Javi Martinez, Bastien Schweinsteiger, Medhi Benatia, David Alaba and Claudio Pizarro, nursed their wounds on the sidelines, leaving coach Pep Guardiola to call up some of Bayern's rival's best young players in recent seasons.

Yet, as Quaresma showed, there is no substitue for depth and experience, especially at the highest level. Operating on the right side - a zone normally marshalled by Alaba, who is widely considered the best left back in the game - the 31-year-old got the better of Juan Bernat in an enthralling contest.

His willingness to take on the man and cut in from the right hand side made him a constant threat. His return of two goals was an apt reflection of his contribution.

Whether Alaba would have fared better is best left for the watercooler, but Bayern's backline lacked calm heads at periods immediately after the start of the match and the start of the second half, when Porto pressed high and exposed the hesitancy in its opponent's defence.

On one such instance, a clumsy ball from Jerome Boateng to Xavi Alonso was picked off by Jackson Martinez, who showed why he's among the best centre forwards not yet playing in the Premier League.   

A lack of depth hurt Bayern, but it shouldn't take the gloss off the performance of a very talented Porto team, led superbly this morning by its captain, Quaresma.

In the morning's other match, the depth issue reared its ugly head for a Paris Saint-Germain team already missing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to suspension, when skipper Thiago Silva went off injured midway through the first half.

Opponent Barcelona may have been playing like a car rolling through a Westfield car park in first gear, but with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar marauding a weakened backline, a few moments of class was all it took to send the Catalans into the second leg with three away goals next to their name.

Without Silva there to mop up, David Luiz looked like a rudderless ship, conjuring memories of similar situations during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Suarez made him look even worse.

PSG has a mountain to climb in the second leg at Camp Nou. Bayern Munich will be a different beast at home, as it showed in the Round of 16 tie against Shakhtar Donetsk. Unlike on that occasion, one gets the sense Porto will have a much greater say in the outcome of that match.  

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