Bayern have the final say after Gomez steals it
SUCH is Real Madrid’s miserable record in Munich, you would have to fear for Jose Mourinho’s hopes of winning the Champions League with three different clubs even if they do win through to next month’s final back at the Allianz Arena.
Ten times they have travelled to Bavaria in this competition, and nine times they have been defeated. The other meeting between these two old rivals ended in a draw.
Mourinho would clearly have been happy with that outcome last night after Mesut Ozil had cancelled out Franck Ribery’s first-half strike, but Bayern’s top scorer Mario Gomez struck in the 90th minute to claim goal No 40 for the season and give Jupp Heynckes’s side a slender advantage going into the second leg at the Bernabeu a week today.
With an away goal under their belts, Real will start as favourites even though they first have to contend with a potential La Liga title decider against Barcelona at the weekend.
Mourinho certainly seems confident of going through to face Barca or his old club Chelsea in the final on May 19.
He said:
‘It will be a different atmosphere in the second leg. Let’s go for it.
‘ It was an OK performance. Enough for a 1-1 draw. We were clearly the better team and the second goal was out of context.’ Mourinho was unhappy that Bayern’s first goal was offside and perhaps he had a point. Luiz Gustavo appeared to have strayed marginally when Ribery drilled the ball past a helpless Iker Casillas with the help of a slight deflection off Pepe after Real had failed to deal with a corner swung in by Toni Kroos in the 17th minute.
But this was a difficult night for Howard Webb and his team of officials. England’s top referee is not particularly popular in Spain following his failure to send off Nigel de Jong for his chest-high challenge on Real’s Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final, and there is a significant amount of bad blood between these two old European heavyweights. This was their 19th meeting in the European Cup. No two clubs have met as often.
Webb was called upon to show nine yellow cards and rule on a very close penalty call in each half. He got the first right, waving away Ribery’s claims after the Bayern winger went down under minimal contact from Sergio Ramos.
The second was less clear. Ramos certainly won the ball as he slid in to challenge Gomez but the striker was taken out by a simultaneous tackle by Fabio Coentrao.
At least assistant Martin Atkinson, who failed to spot that Juan Mata’s goal for Chelsea had not crossed the line in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham, got his one big call right 10 minutes from the end when he ruled the ball had hit Pepe’s chest and not his arm in the Real penalty box.
Mourinho’s side were disappointing, and no- one more so than Cristiano Ronaldo who struggled to make an impression against Philipp Lahm.
The Portugal winger may have scored 53 goals this season but he was well off target with two free-kicks in the first half. In fact, it was following his poor miss that Real equalised in the 54th minute.
Karim Benzema’s pass left Ronaldo one-on-one with Manuel Neuer but the goalkeeper easily blocked his weak effort. The ball ran to Ozil who fed Benzema, and when he scuffed it across goal towards the far post, Ronaldo cut it back for Ozil to tap home.
With Ronaldo failing to trouble Lahm, the Bayern full back was getting forward with increasing regularity. He picked out Gomez with one superb cross that the striker headed over the bar, having stabbed another effort off target when Ramos failed to deal with a free- kick played into the Real penalty box moments earlier.
But as the game entered the 90th minute, Lahm tricked his way past Coentrao and fired the ball in low to the near post. Gomez got in ahead of Alvaro Arbeloa to bundle it in from a few yards out.
It was enough to heap more Munich misery on Madrid. Whether it will be enough to see Bayern through is another matter.
Heynckes told Sky TV: ‘My players showed what I had demanded from them yesterday: lust and hunger for success. I think we more than deserved the win because we played cleverly and intelligently.’
c.wheeler@dailymail.co.uk