Bayern punish wasteful Lewandowski and Barcelona
Bayern München punished FC Barcelona for their lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, beating the La Liga giants 2-0 in Robert Lewandowski's return to the Allianz Arena.
| Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Bayern struggled in the first 45 minutes, but came back more confident after half-time and won the game after Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sané struck quickly in the second half.
Julian Nagelsmann's troops started on the front foot, but quickly lost the grip on the game and could consider themselves lucky not to be behind at the break after a first half that saw the guests create a number of clear-cut chances.
Pedri had the first real chance of the game with 10 minutes on the clock, taking a few good touches inside the penalty area before firing towards goal, but his shot was too close to Manuel Neuer, who made a good save with his leg.
Robert Lewandowski then missed two glorious chances to hurt his ex-club, first smashing the ball narrowly over the crossbar before his header at the back post was kept out by Neuer a few minutes later.
Bayern's biggest chance of the first half fell to Marcel Sabitzer just past the half-hour mark as the Austrian international sent a shot just wide of the post from the edge of the box.
With a few minutes left of the first half, Lewandowski had another glorious chance to open the scoring, but he was denied by a last-ditch tackle from Noussair Mazraoui, who had come on to replace Benjamin Pavard after the Frenchman sustained an injury.
After a less than convincing first half, Bayern showed a different face after the break and took the lead against the run of play in the 50th minute as Lucas Hernandez headed home from a corner.
Four minutes later, Leroy Sané doubled the lead, rolling the ball into the left corner of the goal after being teed up by Jamal Musiala.
The guests had a huge chance to pull one back after just over an hour, but Pedri couldn't beat Neuer from close range and hit the post.
Bayern managed to keep Barcelona quiet for the rest of the game, holding on to their two-goal lead to secure their second win in two games in the Champions League's Group C.