Bayern Munich can no longer be considered losers of European competition. The Bavarian side pulled off a heroic 2-1 victory against arch-nemesis Borussia Dortmund despite potentially blowing a huge 1-0 lead. Here are reasons why Bayern Munich won the Champions league final.
Endurance and Pressure
Dortmund got the better of play in the early going but Bayern grew stronger as the match wore on. Borussia led the chances on goal 5-3 after the first half but wound up outshot 10-7 by the end of the game. Bayern controlled play throughout the second and had numerous opportunities to blow out Dortmund by three or four goals. On one chance, Thomas Müller passed the ball toward an empty net. Only a last second stop from defenseman Mats Hummels prevented the goal. In other instances goalie Roman Weidenfeller made outstanding stops on David Alaba and Bastian Schweinsteiger to secure a tie game for Munich.
However, Dortmund's defense slowed down and started doing a lot of "ball watching" as the match progressed. The game winner was a perfect example of this. Three defenders converged on Franck Ribery near the top of the box but all of them stood still as he flicked a ball past them with his heel. The ball fell into the middle of the area where a fleet-footed Arjen Robben stole it and score the winner. Robben was far from the ball when Ribery made the pass; the fact that he beat everyone to it was an example of Borussia's fatigue.
Manuel Neuer
The Bayern keeper was spectacular in the early going. Borussia had four shots on goal before Bayern even had an attempt on the opposition's net and all of them required tricky saves. Neuer outstretched his leg on a close chance from Robert Lewandowski. He also volleyed away a shot from Marco Reus down the left wing. Late in the first half he stopped Lewandowski on a breakaway to preserve a 0-0 draw. If not for Neuer's spectacular performance early on when his team was out of sync, this game would have been Borussia's for the taking.
Arjen Robben
Neuer was great in the early going. However, obben took over the game late in the first half with a plethora of glorious chances. His play could be characterized as terrific and terrible simultaneously as it was impossible to fathom how he blew so many perfect chances. He had two clear breakaways at goal and was stopped both times by Weidenfeller or a defenseman. Late in the first half, he gained a step on a defender and had a clear shot at goal; he fired the ball right into Weidenfeller head. He eventually set up Bayern's first goal and almost scored on Müller's empty net attempts. He was eventually rewarded by scoring a tremendous winner that saw him finally outwit his top nemesis Weidenfeller. Not other player was as dominant as Robben was in this game.
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