Berlin (AFP)

By winning the German Cup against Leipzig (3-0) in Berlin on Saturday with a Lewandowski double, Bayern Munich have won a national double that lights up a difficult season, both in sport and in terms of sport. atmosphere internally.

Robert Lewandowski scored twice (29th and 85th) to become the only goalscorer in the final of the German Cup final, with six goals, ahead of the legendary Gerd Müller and Uwe Seeler (4). Kingsley Coman scored the second goal (78th).

That it is good this second trophy, a week after the "Schale" of the championship! Good for the club, which has seen its supremacy jostled this season. Good to the team, strongly criticized this winter. And good to Niko Kovac, who felt his coach seat wobble under him for months, and until recent days.

Because the Croat, since his arrival last summer from Frankfurt, did not walk on a carpet of roses.

After a good start to the season, the team suddenly experienced a hole in the air in the fall, and found themselves ... 9 points Borussia Dortmund in the league, even before the end of the matches go.

This is the time when the experts began to look for the name of the successor of Kovac, whose place was hanging by a thread.

- The last of "Robbéry" -

But this beating put the ship back in the direction of the wind, and it was believed that he had saved his head. Until the elimination by Liverpool in the Round of 16 Champions League, with a humiliating 3-1 at home!

The speculations are spread out again, and never stopped, especially as Munich has waited for the last day to secure his title of champion, which had never happened in his previous six consecutive titles.

For this final, Kovac had recovered his goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, injured since mid-April. And as expected, the Robben-Ribery duo was on the bench, peeking to play one last time before leaving the club loaded with trophies, after respectively 10 and 12 seasons in Bavaria.

Robben entered in the 73rd minute and Ribery in the 87th, the fans having screamed for several minutes.

Contrary to the score, the match was tight. "We were expecting it to be tough, we saw it in the first 30 minutes, they pressed us, put pressure on us," Kovac admitted.

"We should not have lost this game, and especially not 3-0," said his counterpart Leipzig Ralf Rangnick, "it's strange, despite this score, we have been matched with Bayern. minutes we were clearly the dominant team and another 20 minutes in the second half (...) But there was better to do in these phases, when we created such opportunities against Bayern and we do not mark , It is not possible.

With a very high pressure, Leipzig initially tried to prevent Munich from playing. And the Saxons got the first opportunity, a Poulsen head diverted to the bar by Neuer, in a high-class reflex.

- Leipzig with long teeth -

The international goalkeeper saved his team a second time after the break by winning a duel against Emil Forsberg.

But we know in Germany that we must never leave Bayern any space. At the 29th, Kingsley Coman launched David Alaba deep on the left, the Austrian center for Lewandowski, who deceived Gulacsi with a header in the corner. 1-0.

In the second half, Leipzig took risks and the game went unchecked. The match then turned to Bayern's advantage.

For Leipzig, this is only part of the discount. The Saxons knew that on paper they were the worst team, but their ambitions go well beyond a cup final. The club's project is to eventually become Bavaria's number one rival in Germany.

"Bayern will remain the benchmark in Germany, but we will try to narrow the gap with them and with Dortmund in the coming years," said RB coach and sports director Ralf Rangnick.

? 2019 AFP