Doha (AFP)
Bayern can dream of a sixth consecutive title: the German club will play Thursday the final of the Club World Cup in Qatar against the Mexican Tigers, after having easily dismissed African champion Al-Ahly 2-0 on Monday thanks to a brace of Lewandowski.
After their quintuplet of 2020 (German Cup and Championship, Champions League, German and European Super Cups), the Bavarians only have one step left to make history.
This will require them to beat the Tigers of Nuevo Leon, led by French striker André-Pierre Gignac (19:00).
The semi-final against the Egyptian team of Al-Ahly was folded by Robert Lewandowski, best FIFA player 2020, who scored in the 17th and 85th minutes: first with a shot from close in the box, then in quietly pushing back with his head in the goal a cross from Leroy Sané, while he was completely alone at six meters.
"We would have liked to score the second goal a little earlier but we are in the final, and I want this sixth title," said the Pole after the match.
The German champion took control from the start: solid behind, without revealing himself too much at the start, but counting on the talent of his attackers, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman very leggy, or Lewandowski always on the lookout.
- Gignac against Bayern -
To the assaults of Hansi Flick's men, the Egyptians opposed a rigorous defensive organization, which prevented them from taking water and allowed them to stay in the match almost to the end.
In attack, their plan was to play every block at a mile an hour, sometimes at the risk of spoiling interesting situations by confusing speed and haste.
But they systematically came up against the Munich defenders, in particular Jérôme Boateng, very present, or the young Alphonso Davies, preferred to the French world champion Lucas Hernandez at the left-back position.
In the end, the statistics pretty much sum up the spectacle enjoyed by the 12,000 spectators, duly tested, masked, and scattered around the stadium: Bayern ended the match with 70% possession of the ball and 23 shots on goal against 5. Al-Ahly has only scored twice, without danger for Manuel Neuer.
But it is another figure, expressed in euros, which best explains why all the club world cups have been won by the representative of Europe since 2013: the total value of Bayern's squad is estimated at 879 millions of euros.
That of Al-Ahly at 25.5 million!
Gignac and his teammates from the Tigers, the first team from the North and Central American Confederation to reach the final of the world tournament, will try Thursday to defeat the relentless economic logic.
The 35-year-old Frenchman will arrive pumped up: he has so far scored his team's three goals at the World Cup, a double in the quarter-final and the winning penalty in the semi-final against the Brazilian club Palmeiras (1- 0).
© 2021 AFP