Champions League | Bayern Munich beats Barcelona; Liverpool gets late winner
The Hindu
Bayern Munich with a 2-0 win in the Champions League showed it can cope quite well without Lewandowski, who left to join Barcelona in the offseason
It doesn't seem to matter which shirt Robert Lewandowski is wearing — Bayern Munich just keeps getting the better of Barcelona either way.
Bayern extended its recent dominance over the Spanish giant with a 2-0 win in the Champions League on Tuesday to show it can cope quite well without Lewandowski, who left to join Barcelona in the offseason.
It started out as a friendly homecoming as Lewandowski walked down the familiar steps of the Allianz Arena players' tunnel before kickoff, hugging every one of his former teammates along the way.
Bayern's players didn't extend the same level of hospitality once the game started.
After Lewandowski missed several good chances to score in the first half, Lucas Hernández and Leroy Sané scored within a five-minute span in the second as Bayern took control of Group C with two wins in two games.
“Luck wasn’t on his side,” Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said about Lewandowski. “For Lewi, it’s an emotional game, here, a bit like coming home."
Sporting Lisbon also moved to six points in Group D after netting two late goals to beat Tottenham 2-0 at home. The other group game between Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt was marred by fan disturbances before kickoff, forcing riot police to intervene when opposing supporters launched flares and fireworks at each other. Frankfurt won the game 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from Jesper Lindstrøm.
Daniel Quizon is the latest to join the band of leaders. The Philippines player beat Russian Artion Stribuk on the third board in the ninth round at the Gift City Club on Tuesday. The four overnight leaders – Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan, Russia’s Rudik Makarian, Mamikon Gharibyan of Armenia, and Colombia’s Jose Gabriel Cardoso – were featured in the drawn games on the top two boards.