Bayern Munich 1-2 Real Madrid : Disaster in Bavaria (UCL Review)
- Arpan Bhattacharjee
- Apr 26, 2018
- 2 min read
The Bavarian crowd at the Allianz Arena stood still, as Real Madrid snatched away an important away win of 2-1 over Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League semi finals. Two clinical finishes from Marcelo and Marco Asensio in either side of half time provided the cup holders an advantage ticket for their flight to Kiev. The German Champions looked promising with a 4-1-4-1 attacking lineup making Rafinha as their makeshift left back since David Alaba missed the match because of injury. Injury woes furthur troubled Heynckes's side more, as Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng had to be sidelined within half an hour of the game.
Bayern were positive and started off well with an early lead on the 29th minute with Joshua Kimmich recording his name on the scoresheet. Marcelo was apparently out of position on the left flank, that gave Bayern a free chance to launch a counter. James Rodriguez,on loan from Real, caught the free space to pass the ball for Kimmich who, after making a seamless run, fired a powerful effort from a tight angle that burst past Keylor Navas to the near post net. Though their lead didn't last long as Marcelo netted a powerful half volley from the edge of the penalty box, just before the end of the first half giving no chance for the Bavarian defenders to react.
The visitors slowly took grip of the midfield right from the start of the second half. Bayern defence looked shaky and soon this resulted to an awful defensive error by Rafinha in the 57th minute. Madrid medios took full advantage of the wide-space leading Asensio to play an one-two with Lucas Vasquez. Asensio kept his cool as he chipped the ball into the net past a struggling Ulreich. Time was still left for the Bavarians to come back into the game, but Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski stood into each other's path to prevent what should have been a tap-in from Javi Martinez's header. Cristiano Ronaldo was seen silent throughout the game, though had a chance to score in the 70th minute when he fired in a long ball past the goalkeeper, although the referee Bjorn Kuipers rightly disallowed his effort off for handball despite fierce protests from the Portuguese star.
Jupp Heynckes' prolonged 13 undefeated run in UCL came to a hault whereas Cristiano Ronaldo's finally did not make the scoresheet after an amazing streak of 10 UCL matches.
Bayern added Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng to their never ending list of injuries with Neuer, Alaba, Coman, Arturo Vidal and Javi Martinez sidelined. The Bavarians have an uphill task infront and must score at least 2 goals at the Bernabeu without conceding to prevent Real Madrid from going through into a fourth UCL Cup final in five years.
MIA SAN MIA
- by Sayantan Chowdhury
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