EEurope a monarchy? That only exists in the realm of King Football. And now they are the “kings of Europe”, as Thomas Müller had called the big goal – they, the Bavarians, and not the Emir of Qatar and his playing troupe. With the 1-0 win against Paris St-Germain in the last game of the longest of all football seasons, the final of the Champions League, FC Bayern took the final step towards the culmination of a phenomenal season on Sunday evening in Lisbon – completing the “triple” Championship, Cup and Champions League.
The winning goal was scored by the Paris-born Kingsley Coman, who was brought into the starting line-up by coach Hansi Flick instead of Ivan Perisic, with a header in the 59th minute. In the end, in the Estádio da Luz, captain Manuel Neuer held up the most important trophy in club football, the trophy with the handles that are characteristic of them and whose silhouette looks like that of two huge auricles. Bayern have now won it for the sixth time, drawing level with last year’s winner Liverpool FC, only Real Madrid (13 wins) and AC Milan (seven) managed to do so more often.
In addition to David Alaba, Thomas Müller, Jerome Boateng and Javi Martinez, Neuer is one of five Bayern players who participated in the first triple in 2013. They are closing in on the exclusive circle of Lionel Messi and six other FC Barcelona players who have so far been the only ones to have achieved such a double triple.
Whether you can also include Thiago, as the only player who would have achieved the double triple with two different clubs, statistical purists will have to rack their brains. The Spaniard, who played his last game for Bayern in the final against Paris before moving to Liverpool, was a 17-year-old junior player in the professional squad of his home club FC Barcelona in the 2008/09 season, but only played 15 minutes .
In Lisbon, the pressure was noticeably great from the start on everyone involved. Only not with the most important ball, the ball. After ten minutes, Bayern coach Flick complained about a significant loss of pressure on the play equipment that he came across on the sideline. The referee motioned him to take another one, there were enough there.
And the ball didn’t have to complain, it was treated well and moved from goal to goal at high speed. The Parisians were the first to break the pressing blockade in the other half. A counterattack via Mbappé landed at Neymar, who appeared half-left free in front of Neuer. The goalkeeper parried the Brazilian shot from an acute angle with a lot of skill – and the little luck that the ball jumped from his left heel and one buttock behind him to the side into the goal (18th).
As soon as it seemed that the French took over a little bit of command, Bayern showed their goal danger – and almost, as they did against Barcelona and Lyon in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, the first successful conclusion landed in the final in the goal. Robert Lewandowski artfully brought a half-high pass from Alphonso Davies with his back to the goal under control and set the ball from twelve meters from the rotation to the left post (22nd).
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