MUNICH MARCH INTO THE FINAL
THE scoreline suggests 90 minutes that progressed entirely as expected. The reality was anything but.
And not only because the twogoal hero of the night was Serge Gnabry, who famously couldn’t get a game at West Bromwich Albion.
Lyon had the best of the chances. Really, they did. Bayern Munich got the job done, by a sizable margin, and may well do so again on Sunday, when they will start the final as favourites to beat PSG.
Yet this was no walkover, no stroll in the Barcelona park. If Lyon could finish, they could have won. They had spells at the start of both halves when they carved Munich’s defence open, but failed to show the confidence that had undone Manchester City.
Munich, by contrast, played with the sense of ownership that leads a handful of elite clubs to dominate this tournament as if by right. Everyone thought they would win, and Munich played as if they believed it, too. Their response to a significant period of first-half domination by Lyon was to score two goals in 14 minutes, to take the match away from them.
Gnabry got both of those: the first a cracker, the second a tap-in that came from being in the right place, at the right time.
He has certainly been that in Europe this season: this brought his 2019-20 total to nine goals in as many Champions League games.
The final flourish after 88 minutes belonged to Robert Lewandowski, who took his scoring run in this competition to nine straight matches, equalling Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s run in 2003.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s record — 11 games in 2018 — will have to wait, even if Lewandowski scores in the final. This was a straightforward finish — a strong headers from a Joshua Kimmich corner when Lyon’s fate was known.
Munich were comfortable winners 10 years ago, the last time these teams met at this stage of the Champions League, but it was very different last night.
Lyon were defeated yet somehow exceeded many expectations — although having conquered Juventus and Manchester City already in this competition, perhaps we should not have been surprised.
The pity was, Lyon did not play badly. Not to begin with, anyway. If anything, until the moment when Gnabry opened the scoring, they were outstanding. Better than Bayern, certainly better than Barcelona were against the Germans last week.
A step up, even, on the performance against Manchester City.
In the earliest exchanges here, Lyon were as good as any team we have seen in this UEFA mini-tournament.
Except in one, vital, area. They could not score. Had Lyon been better in front of goal, who knows what alarms they would have set off in Bayern’s defence. This is not their strong point, we know that.
Even putting eight past Barcelona, Munich looked vulnerable. So had they gone one, maybe two, even three down in the opening 16 minutes — and it could have happened — they might have been plunged into the sort of mental crisis Barcelona faced last Friday.
Instead, Lyon let their advantage slip and were caught on the counter attack. Done again after 32 minutes, that was it. The moment had passed and Lyon played as if they knew it. But what a moment it could have been.
The game was four minutes old when Thiago Alcantara gave the ball away sloppily in midfield and it was struck swiftly into the path of Memphis Depay, whose run split Munich’s central defenders leaving only Manuel Neuer to beat.
Depay took it wide, as Munich’s goalkeeper tried to jockey like a defender, terrified of committing and giving up the penalty. Had Depay taken maybe one more stride to the right, his angle would have improved immeasurably, instead he took on the tightest of margins and hit the side-netting.
It was a huge opportunity, and Depay’s face suggested that he knew it.
Under pressure, Neuer dealt with a cross from Leo Dubois less than convincingly after ten minutes, before Depay went wide again two minutes later.
It was all Lyon and scourge of Manchester City, Maxwell Cornet, should have done better from the next attack, breaking down the right with Karl Toko Ekambi in space at the far post. His cross did not make it past the first Bayern man, however. Jerome Boateng at full stretch to cut it out.
Munich were reeling by now and when Ekambi collected the ball close to goal after 16 minutes, the disarray at the back showed.
He glided past Alphonso Davies, left David Alaba on his backside and then took in Neuer’s near post, his low shot rebounding off the woodwork.
It was a sliding doors event. Within two minutes Munich were a goal up and never looked back.
What a wonderful goal it was, too. As vulnerable as Munich looked at the back — and PSG’s front three will have been watching this with particular interest — they are imperious going forward.
Kimmich played a ball into the right channel where Gnabry was
waiting. He cut inside with Lyon too slow to close him down, before unleashing a shot that flew past goalkeeper Anthony Lopes into the top corner.
It was the signal for Munich to get on the front foot at last, with Gnabry at the heart of it all.
He nearly grabbed a copycat second after 25 minutes, cutting inside from the right again, forcing a low parry from Lopes this time.
Lewandowski enjoyed his first chance of the game soon after, put in by a lovely flick but finding Lopes steadfast again.
Then, with one tiny error, Lyon handed the tie over. It was a fine run down the left by Ivan Perisic — on loan from Inter Milan, so he could have had his pick of European finals this weekend — but Jason Denayer entirely missed his chance to clear, stepping over his cross as if performing a dummy.
Maybe that is what surprised Lewandowski, who had the simplest tap in, but somehow contrived to both miss his kick and fall over.
Gnabry to the rescue, then, collecting the loose ball and smashing it into goal from inside the sixyard box. And Gnabry was doing his best to help the striker.
In the 38th minute, a quite magnificent cross from the right was an inch away from gifting Lewandowski
Munich’s third at the far post. Had that gone in, there would have been no way back for Lyon; instead they started the second half with a puncher’s chance, and proved as much with a couple of early chances.
Marcelo had a header from a Depay corner picked out by Neuer, but Ekambi’s miss after 59 minutes from a cross by Houssem Aouar, rekindled memories of the first half.
He hit it straight at Neuer. Manchester City will have been cursing that such wastefulness did not inflict Lyon earlier.
LYON (3-5-2): Lopes 6; Denayer 6, Marcelo 6, Marcal 5 (Cherki 73min, 6); Dubois 6 (Tete 67, 6), Caqueret 6, Guimaraes 5 (Mendes 46, 6), Aouar 7, Cornet 6; Toko Ekambi 5 (ReineAdelaide 67, 6), Memphis 6 (Dembele 58, 6) . Subs not used: Diomande, Andersen, Rafael, Traore, Lucas, Tatarusanu, Bard. Scorers: None. Booked: Marcelo, Marcal, Mendes. Manager: Rudi Garcia 6. BAYERN (4-2-3-1): Neuer 7; Kimmich 6, Boateng 6 (Sule 46, 6), Alaba 6, Davies 6; Alcantara 6 (Tolisso 82), Goretzka 6 (Pavard 82); GNABRY 8 (Coutinho 75, 6), Muller 6, Perisic 6 (Coman 63, 7); Lewandowski 7. Subs not used: Odriozola, Martinez, Cuisance, Hernandez, Ulreich, Zirkzee, Hoffmann. Scorers: Gnabry 18, 33, Lewandowski 88. Manager: Hansi Flick 7. Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz 6.