On Robert Lewandowski‘s return to Bavaria, Bayern Munich defeated Barcelona 2-0 on Tuesday in the Champions League thanks to two goals in three minutes of the second half, including an excellent chip from Leroy Sane.
Read also: PSG coach Galtier praises Neymar’s outstanding work ethic.
Lucas Hernandez, a French defender for Bayern, headed in a corner to give the home team the lead, but Sane put the game beyond question.
Sane, a former Manchester City forward, helped Bayern flip a contest that was much in favor of Barca after a frenzied first half by scoring one goal and setting up another in Bayern’s 2-0 opening Champions League victory against Inter Milan.
Three minutes after Bayern’s Hernandez headed in a corner from Joshua Kimmich to open the scoring, the Germany forward scored Bayern’s second in the 54th minute by chipping the ball over Catalan goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen.
During the pre-game warm-up, Lewandowski was greeted by enthusiastic ovation from the home crowd, and he had multiple chances to start the scoring.
“I think for Lewy it was really an emotional game to come back – a little bit like coming home, because he was so successful here,” Bayern captain Manuel Neuer told Amazon Prime.
“The luck in the decisive moments wasn’t on his side – and that became our luck.
“With his volley (in the 19th minute) we had a little bit of luck that it went over the crossbar… but I think we showed a really good defensive performance.”
In the 19th minute, Lewandowski caught Pedri’s dipping pass and fired, but it was too high and just cleared the crossbar.
Ahead of Bayern’s goal again a minute later, the Poland forward once more received the ball, but Manuel Neuer stopped his header at close range.
After joining from Leeds in the summer, Raphinha made his Champions League debut. After 27 minutes, the Brazilian striker hammered a low shot past a stranded Neuer, but the Brazilian missed the goal by a whisker.
Alphonso Davies hauled down Ousmane Dembele on the edge of the box during the last seconds of the first half, but referee Danny Makkelie rejected Barcelona’s demands for a penalty despite replays clearly demonstrating the Canadian’s contact with the Frenchman’s knees.
Leon Goretzka was substituted for Marcel Sabitzer by Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann at halftime, and the substitution nearly paid off right away as the former’s rocket from beyond the box was diverted out by ter Stegen for a corner, from which Hernandez would score.
Nagelsmann told the media after the game he hoped the victory would mean the end of questions about Lewandowski.
“He played a good game. From our point of view, I’m happy that he didn’t score – but I think we saw he was dangerous.”
“After the game, I saw him and I hugged him, but he plays for a different club and I have different players I need to look out for.
“This week I had 65 questions on Lewandowski. You can ask those questions to Xavi now, because he’s not my player anymore.”
Barcelona’s 19-year-old midfielder Pedri said Bayern made his side pay for failing to take their chances.
“It was a tricky game,” he told Movistar+
“In the first half we had a lot of chances to score and when you forgive so much against a team like this, you end up paying for it,” he added.
Bayern travel to the Camp Nou for the return fixture on 26 October.
Stay plugged into Gistlux.com on our website and be part of all latest gist on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
