What a night in Milano for Bayern Munich! Bayern played the current treble winners of Europe, the team that beat Bayern in the Champions League final 2-0, in Italy.. and won. You could see it before the match, you would hear a new interview every few hours from the Bayern camp, Schweini saying Milan is better, Muller saying Bayern lost because they didn't play to their potential rather than Inter playing so well, Van Gaal saying Inter play defensive football, etc etc.. The point is there was a bit of bitterness and anger, that much is clear. And they did what needed to be done, talk the talk and walk the walk. Good thing because had they lost, they would have looked like fools for all the little digs at Inter.
Tap in or not, he knows how to score
At times during the match, you would have thought that Bayern was the home team the way they played. This match was also weird in the sense that there was only one goal scored. It could have easily ended 2-2 or 3-2 for either team, very even match. Chances galore, Inter through Eto'o & Cambiasso had chances to win the the match, while in Bayern with Ribery hitting the crossbar, Robben post and Gomez chance but all went begging. Then at the end, Robben dribbled and shot from 20-25 yards and Cesar fumbled the ball.. Mario Gomez then running and tapping it in to celebrate in a funky dance. Probably one of the easiest goals he's ever scored, also Lucio who was amazing all match was found ball watching when he should have tried to close the space. With everything that went on in the match, this is probably the best match of the knock-out stage so far.
blood & sweat from Schweinsteiger, the new Effenberg
I did think that Leonardo would be outcoached by Van Gaal and that's exactly what happened. His initial tactics were good, the counter attacking style as soon as getting the ball pass to Eto'o or Sneijder and hope they would play with one another to get the goal. It almost worked on a few occasions, but Kraft saved the day. Van Gaal put Gustavo in midfield to man-mark Sneijder all match. First half he had trouble, Sneijder got away from him on several occasions and was casuing Bayern trouble along with Eto'o. Whatever he said at half time worked, because Bayern pretty much controlled and dominated the entire 2nd half bar the last 5 minutes with Gustavo keeping Sneijder quiet. Leo on the other hand made no changes once his initial plan wasn't working, which is where he failed short of and with a bit of luck, got punished because of it. Inter will have to do really the impossible and that is to win at the Allianz Arena. Bayern this season have lost there only once, vs Mainz when Bayern was at their worst form of the season, had many players including Robbery injured and Mario Gomez benched while Mainz was firing on all cylinders. Still with that loss, Bayern have the best home record in the league in home matches with the most goals and points gained. Two things that dissapointed me in particular from the match was Ribery & Muller. Ribery I expected to be the best player for Bayern beforehand, yet he was one of the worst. He will need to play better in the next leg, we expect more from highest paid player in the team even though Badstuber just standing back in defense after Pranjic's injury surely didn't help him. Muller was invisible for most of the match and at times looked lazy in his running, which was really really irritating. He had 2 near perfect passes to Gomez that were intercepted by good defending and a few other moments where he looked good in posession. He still looked better than last year in Champions League, but he also didn't look as good as he looks in the league. When the opposing team is marking Robbery & Gomez, you are expected to have a far, far bigger presence in the field than a few plays or passes here and there. No excuse, he along with Ribery need to improve for the next match. With this result, I would say Bayern are likely to advance. I was very proud of their performance vs Inter and am hoping they play a bit better in the 2nd leg considering it's at home.
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