Bayern Munich finished what they began last week in efficient fashion, securing their berth in the Champions League final with another dominating performance.
Led by a hat trick from Ivica Olic, Bayern strolled to a 3-0 (4-0 aggregate) win against a Lyon side reduced to ten men. Bayern did it without suspended Franck Ribery, and without a goal from their European talisman Arjen Robben. They didn’t seem to miss a beat.
Now Bayern await the winner of tomorrow’s Barcelona-Inter Milan match. They will play in Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium for their first European trophy since 2001 on May 22. The Germans will be no pushover - Bayern showed once more that they can play crisp attacking football that relentlessly pries apart opponent’s flaws.
Let their opponents be aware.
It was the first loss of the European campaign for Lyon, who had been one of the tougher teams in the Champions League over the past few seasons. Tonight, however, Bayern’s high line and relentless midfield pressure neutered any possible attack from the Frenchmen. In truth, the result was almost a fait accompli from the start.
Reduced to ten men after Swiss referee Massimo Busacca ejected Cris for what seemed to be entirely spurious reasons, Lyon were never able to get back into the match. All night, they failed to engage Bayern’s central defense and never challenged Hans-Joerg Butt in the net.
Lyon fans will have a right to feel aggrieved at the quality of officiating — Busacca had a poor night, handing out four dreadful cautions, including the second that led to Cris’ ejection — but that should not be an excuse. Lyon were simply unable to match the Germans’ pace, tactics or power.
Despite Louis van Gaal’s pre-match carping about injuries, it was Bayern who looked the faster and fitter of the teams. Bayern of course got back Holder Badstuber and Mark van Bommel, but that hardly made up for the loss of Ribery, who saw a straight red in the first leg for a vicious lunge on Lisandro. Also suspended was Daniel Pranjic, while Anatoly Tymoschuk was sidelined by a stomach virus.
It didn’t matter. Bayern came out from the whistle with a devastating four-man attack that put constant pressure on Jean-Alain Boumsong and Cris in the middle. With Thomas Mueller and Olic probing, Robben and Hamit Altintop were free to move through the middle and down the wings, creating far too many options for Lyon to handle.
Viewed in isolation, Olic’s first goal came in perhaps too easy a fashion, with Robben finding Mueller against Anthony Revelliere, and the young German just tossing the defender bodily aside to find Olic. Olic, with a deft spin, flung down Aly Cissokho and punched the ball on net, past a helpless Hugo Lloris. But seen in context, it was the natural result of what had been a withering attack.
Olic’s second, coming after Cris’ ejection and Lyon’s desperate need to score, was also predictable. Begun by Bastian Schweinsteiger’s searching ball out of the back to Hamit Altintop, Olic pointed to where he wanted the Turkish international to place the ball, and he got his wish, allowing the young Croat to run onto the ball and again give Lloris no chance.
The final goal was the beauty, with Olic’s brow soaked in blood after an earlier clash, meeting a fine cross from Philipp Lahm that caught Lloris going the wrong way. That it felt like a twist of the knife isn’t Olic — or Bayern’s fault.
Key for the Germans was the play of Schweinsteiger and Lahm, both brilliant in the back, and the marking of young Diego Contento, who had his second straight standout match for Bayern. That trio neutralized Lyon’s Michel Bastos, repeatedly stripped Cesar Delgado, and made sure that Sidney Govou could not affect this game one bit.
For van Gaal, tonight’s result had to be sweet. His team can now win both the Bundesliga and the European Cup, something he did 15 years ago with Ajax. Van Gaal, who inherited a Bayern team in disarray after the stormy tenure of Juergen Klinsmann, has turned Bayern into an exciting, clockwork side that melds the traditional German ethos to the beauty of classical Dutch football.
Claude Puel’s take, meanwhile, will be darker. His club had been tough on the road and unbeatable at home, but one always had the nagging sense that something was missing.
Tonight, they were exposed as incomplete. This was sad ending for Lyon, a club for which the French title is out of reach, and a place in Europe at any level may prove elusive to boot.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the Champions League and European football.
