Zinedine Zidane’s men almost saw their quest for back-to-back Champions League titles scuttled in a poor first half at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday, only for Bayern Munich to spectacularly implode after the break to leave the Germans’ chances of winning the tie hanging by a thread.
Moments after fellow German team Borussia Dortmund lost at home to French side AS Monaco, Die Roten took to the field against their Spanish opponents who had an absolutely lousy record against the German giants coming into the tie.
Real had won only one of 12 games against Bayern in Germany, losing nine of those, but their only win was on their last trip. Bayern, meanwhile, went into the game short of one of their best players.
Bayern missed their hitman
Robert Lewandowski, hitman supreme, appears to be a most boring character on the field. No razzle dazzle, no fancy cartwheeling, just a single minded focus to put the hallowed sphere into the back of the old onion bag.
Post unification, Germany has not seen many of his calibre, nor many who can match his frankly super-human record in a 34-game league this season. Possibly the most prolific of all players not named Messi or Ronaldo, the Polish sensation was a massive miss, out with shoulder pain.
In a FC Hollywood team packed to the rafters with attacking talents such as Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben, Lewandowski shoulders the responsibility as a single point of focus up front. Having eclipsed Bayern luminaries Roy Makaay and Mario Gomez, indeed, Lewy is comparable to Der Bomber himself, Gerd Muller. Zidane will tell his defence to take ample cover if and when he is back for the second leg.
Ronaldo AWOL in first half
If Bayern’s missing hero was conspicuous through his absence, Real’s own caped crusader went AWOL in the opening period, symptomatic of his Champions League season.
Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t netted in his last six Champions League games, after bagging two in the first two continental encounters of the season. The Portuguese phenomenon hadn’t completely been out of the action, notching up five assists since, but his prolonged goal drought was indicative of poor shooting form in front of goal.
Ronaldo had two touches in the opposition’s penalty box and was hardly involved in goalmouth action, forced to shoot from distance. Real needn’t have revived, as Zidane pushed his most trusted asset further forward in the second half. The move worked like a treat, as Ronnie moved through the gears like clockwork and this Madrid’s team ability to become meta-functional at times, as demonstrated on several occasions this year and the last, became pronounced as the game wore on.
One-man show
The first appeared just after the stroke of half-time as Dani Carvajal, wrongly penalised in the first half for an incorrect handball decision, seeked to make amends and floated one in which found Ronaldo near the penalty spot and he expertly guided it past Manuel Neuer who was at the receiving end of a Madrid barrage in the second half.
Javi Martinez’s sending off, due to two yellows in quick succession, the second triggered due to Ronaldo’s incessant running, had left the Bavarians in the lurch and the Portuguese dynamo made full use of the man advantage. Marco Asensio, on for the peripheral Gareth Bale at the hour mark, drove forward and crossed it to an open space, only for Ronaldo to ghost in past Juan Bernat and toe-poke the ball home between Neuer’s legs.
Don Carlo Ancelotti had bravely gambled after Martinez’s dismissal, bringing Bernat and the energetic Douglas Costa on, but a stellar one-man show had doused his side’s first-half fire.
Earlier, Arturo Vidal had given his side a well-deserved lead, the Chilean meeting a Thiago Alcantara corner squarely with his forehead, bullying it past Keylor Navas, third-choice centre-back Nacho Fernandez unable to live with Bayern’s hardman.
Arguably the finest Bayern performer on the night, Vidal, and indeed Bayern may rue his lapse at the end of the first half. Ribery’s shot had hit Carvajal on the chest, and referee Nicola Rizzoli, who had an excellent outing till then, was unsighted as his assistant signalled that it should be a penalty for the home team. Up stepped Vidal, but the normally unflappable midfield destroyer was left distraught as his shot sailed over the bar.
Bayern’s Champions League journey in Philipp Lahm’s final season is far from over and they will presumably be more confident once their star striker rejoins the contingent. One man will sleep peacefully, though. At 32, Cristiano Ronaldo could not have chosen a more important or tougher game to put Real’s closest rivals for ol’ Big Ears to the sword. Once a champion, always a champion, if there were ever any lingering questions over the man and his abilities, they have been answered.
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