Sunday, December 22, 2013

Bayern Munich win another continental crown, five in a trot.



              


              Bayern Munich won the 5th crown of this year, beating Moroccan Side Raja Casablanca 2-0 in the final of Club World cup at Marrakech Stadium, Marrakech today. Brazilian center back Dante scored the first for visitors in the 7th minute of the game while Spanish international Thiago doubled the lead in 22nd minute.
              The Bavarians started the season with a nine-match winning streak. The club have been going through a purple patch claiming 5 trophies since last season, triumphing the Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League the German cup, the UEFA Super Cup & finally grabbing the Club World cup. Bayern are the first German club to achieve such landmark to win back to back five major triumphs in a row.
                   This was the third time Bayern coach Pep Guardiola has won the Club World Cup after lifting the trophy during his previous stint with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011.
                On the other hand the German giants had never appeared in FIFA's Club World Cup before this game, they did win the Intercontinental Cup—the Club World Cup's
forerunner—in 1976 and 2001.
                    Meanwhile the local side Raja qualified for the tournament as champions of the host country Morocco. They were the second team from outside Europe or South America to reach the final since the tournament began in its current form in 2005 and were only briefly in the contest.
                   The Moroccans have earned admirers for a tremendous run which saw them beat Auckland City, Monterrey and Atletico Mineiro en route to the final where they had plenty of home support.
                     Just as they had done in Wednesday's 3-0 semi-final win over Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande, the Germans dominated throughout the entire tournament.
                   In this match Guardiola had to choose his first eleven in front of vociferous 45000 odd crowd randomly shouting for the homeside without gamemaker Bastian Schweinsteiger & winger Aejen Robben due to their injury.
                In the 7th minute Dante put the visitors ahead after a head from Jerome Boateng who grounded the ball following a corner from Xherdan Shaqiri.
                While Thiago scored the second  in 22nd minute after Alaba cut inside from the left wing to find Thiago who thundered the ball past Raja’s advancing custodian Askri into the net.
                After that goal both sides had their chances but neither of them manage to utilise any.
                Since last season Bayern have been going through a remarkable unstoppable dream-run & whether their form is concern they have been instrumental.
               In another eventful match in the third place decider Brazilian side Atletico Miniero edge past Guangzhou by 3-2 margin, the Brazilians had to play with 10 men in the few dying minutes of the game after veteran star Ronaldinho, who scored the second for his side got marching order.