ROBBEN DRIVES BAYERN TO GLORY

By James Kombe

Arjen Robben’s late goal was what Bayern Munich needed to earn a fifth UEFA title through a 2-1 victory over fellow German side, Borussia Dortmund on Saturday night. The final match of the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League campaign held at Wembley Stadium – England – was the fourth between clubs from the same country. However, it was the first all-Germany UEFA final.

The two domestic rivals came head-to-head in what proved to be one of the toughest finals of the European league. Borussia Dortmund, the last season’s Germany Bundesliga champions, dominated most of the first half play with a couple of clear chances at their disposal. However, none of them was fruitful as Manuel Neuer who produced several fantastic saves on Bayern’s goalkeeping. Hence the first half ended in a goalless draw.


Bayern Munich, the current Germany kings, revived their spirit and successfully took over the ball possession right from the beginning of the last half of the match. It took goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller’s brilliant efforts to continuously prevent several goal attempts from the opponent’s attacking squad. However, Mario Mandzukic managed to give Bayern a 1-0 lead on the 60th minute; thanks to the Holland international, Arjen Robben’s assistance.

In a bid to seek for an equalizer and consequently awake their winning hopes, Jurgen Klopp’s men seemed to adopt the defend-and-counter-attack strategy, but their moves were constantly blocked by the strong Bayern defenders. They were later awarded a spot kick after Marco Reus was brought down by Brazilian defender, Dante Bonfim, inside the penalty area. Ilkay Gundogan successfully converted the resultant penalty shot into a goal to terminate Bayern’s short-lived lead on the 68th minute. Robert Lewandowski could have awarded Dortmund a second goal a couple of minutes later but the Italian referee, Nicola Rizzoli, cancelled out the striker’s goal. Lewandowski had not kept his left hand from touching the ball just before he striked an accurate shot from a long range into Bayern’s goal net.

Towards the end, there was a great possibility of the match going into extra time and probably penalty shoot-out stage to break the 1-1 tie. However, with just one minute of normal time left, Robben won the ball again and made a wonderful move past Dortmund defenders. He finally tackled the helpless goalkeeper and rolled the ball past his legs into the back of the net. The former Chelsea player took his side into glory as the only Bayern player to have completed eleven UEFA Champions League campaigns.

Road to Wembley

Bayern Munich knocked out the newly-crowned Spanish La Liga champions – FC Barcelona – in the competition’s semi-final stage with an incredible 7-0 aggregate score.
Borussia Dortmund on the other hand, went past Real Madrid with a narrow aggregate victory of 4-3.