Arjen Robben’s late goal
was what Bayern Munich needed to earn a fifth UEFA title, following a 2-1
victory over fellow German side, Borussia Dortmund on Saturday night.The final
match of the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League campaign held at Wembley Stadium –
England – was a fourth between clubs from the same country. However, it was the
first all-Germany UEFA final.
The two domestic rivals
came head-to-head in what proved to be one of the toughest finals of the
European league. Borussia Dortmund, the last season’s Germany Bundesliga
champions, dominated most of the first half play with a couple of clear chances at their disposal. However, none of them was fruitful as
Manuel Neuer produced several fantastic saves on Bayern’s goalkeeping. Hence
the first half ended in a goalless draw.
Bayern Munich, who are
the current Germany kings, revived their spirit and successfully took over the
ball possession right from the beginning of the last half of the match. It took
goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller brilliant efforts to continuously come to
Dortmund’s rescue of preventing several goal attempts from the opponent’s
attacking squad. However, Mario Mandzukic managed to give Bayern a 1-0 lead on
the 60th minute; thanks to the Holland international, ArjenRobben’s
assistance.
In a bid to seek for an
equalizer and consequently awake their winning hopes, JurgenKlopp’s men seemed
to adopt the defend-and-counter-attack strategy, but their moves were
constantly blocked by the strong Bayern defenders. They were later awarded a
spot kick after Marco Reus was brought down by Brazillian defender, Dante
Bonfim, inside the penalty area.IlkayGundogan successfully converted the
resultant penalty shot into a goal to terminate Bayern’s short-lived lead on
the 68th minute. Robert Lewandowski could have awarded Dortmund a
second goal a couple of minutes later but the Italian referee, Nicola Rizzoli,
cancelled out the striker’s goal. Lewandowski had not kept his left hand from
touching the ball just before hestriked an accurate shot from a long range into
Bayern’s goal net.
Towards the end, there
was a great possibility of the match going into extra time and probably penalty
shoot-out stage to break the 1-1 tie. However, with just one minute of normal
time left, Robben won the ball again, made a wonderful move past Dortmund
defenders. He finally tackled the helpless goalkeeper and rolled the ball past
his legs into the back of the net. The former Chelsea player therefore took his
side into glory as the only Bayern player to have completed eleven UEFA
Champions League campaigns.
Road to Wembley
Bayern Munich knocked
out the newly-crowned Spanish La Liga champions – FC Barcelona – in the
competition’s semi-final stage with an incredible 7-0 aggregate score.
Borussia Dortmund on
the other hand, went past Real Madrid with a narrow aggregate victory of 4-3.
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