'This' Barcelona cannot stop Bayern Munich, and Ronald Koeman's changes show he knows it

Live to fight another day. That was likely what Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman was thinking around the hour mark on Tuesday when, 2-0 down at home and on the way to defeat against Bayern Munich, he hooked veterans Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto and did the football equivalent of a bedraggled basketball coach emptying his bench.

On came Gavi and Yusuf Demir, two guys who are a combined 35 years old, have played a total of 47 first-team minutes and probably would not be recognised by many Barca fans if they showed up at the front door to deliver a pizza.

Koeman went even further fewer than 15 minutes later, when he replaced Jordi Alba with Alejandro Balde, an 18-year-old making his debut for…