How Bayern Munich Beat Borussia Dortmund To Win The 2013 Champions League Background The Bundesliga became the fourth league to provide both teams for a Champions League Final. La Liga (Real Madrid vs. Valencia ’00), Serie A (Milan vs. Juventus ’03) and the Barclays Premier League (Manchester United vs. Chelsea ’08) all came before. Bayern was making a third appearance in the final of the Champions League in the last four seasons having lost previously to Inter in 2010 and to Chelsea in 2012. Bayern entered the match having already won the Bundesliga and with a date against Stuttgart next weekend in the German Cup Final. This was stage 2 of a possible treble and if achieved it would be the first ever by a German club. Last season, with Jupp Heynckes as manager, Bayern finished as runners-up in all three competitions. Under manager Jürgen Klopp Borussia Dortmund did the German domestic double last season but had also failed to qualify from the group stage of the Champions League. This season a poor start left Dortmund 12 points behind Bayern at the half way mark in the Bundesliga and the gap was to more than double as Dortmund finished second and 25 points behind the eventual champions. Going into this season Dortmund had beaten Bayern five straight times but that ended when the Munich side beat Dortmund 1-0 in the season opening German Super Cup. Two league games ended 1-1 but Bayern got the better of Dortmund in the quarter finals of the German Cup. Bayern started as the bookies favorite to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time since 2001. The Champions Final returned to Wembley Stadium two years after Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1. Line-ups Borussia Dortmund was missing the services of Mario Götze through injury. In a few weeks’ time Götze will transfer his allegiances to Bayern Munich. The $50M move will make the soon to be 21-year-old Germany’s most expensive player. Marco Reus moved infield to take Götze’s regular position behind lone striker Robert Lewandowski and hardworking Grosskreutz took Reus’ role on what initially appeared to be an attacking bank of three. Mats Hummels was an injury doubt but was passed fit to start at centre back for Dortmund. There were no surprises in the Bayern Munich starting eleven. Dante returned to the back four after being left out of the 3-0 second leg win over Barcelona with a yellow card suspension hanging over his head. Toni Kroos was hobbled during the quarter-final win over Juventus and Arjen Robben had taken his place since with Thomas Mueller moving inside and the Dutchman normally playing in a wide position on the right side of midfield. Borussia Dortmund: 1-Roman Weidenfeller; 26-Lukasz Piszczek, 4-Neven Subotic, 15-Mats Hummels, 29-Marcel Schmelzer; 8-Ilkay Gündogan, 6-Sven Bender, 16-Jakub Blaszczykowski, 11-Marco Reus, 19-Kevin Grosskreutz; 9-Robert Lewandowski. Bayern Munich: 1-Manuel Neuer; 21-Philipp Lahm, 17-Jerome Boateng, 4-Dante, 27-David Alaba; 31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, 8-Javi Martinez; 10-Arjen Robben, 25-Thomas Mueller, 7-Franck Ribery; 9-Mario Mandzukic. Formation and tactics When the line-ups were announced it looked as if both sides would line-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Within seconds of the kick-off it became obvious that Dortmund had opted for something different. Reus pushed up field in support of Lewandowski in a 4-4-1-1 formation that on occasion reverted to a 4-4-2 or even a 4-2-2-2.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:24:27 +0000
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