Bayern Munich advanced to the Champions League semifinals after a 2-2 draw against Benfica. Goals from Arturo Vidal and Thomas Muller ensured their passage to the penultimate round on a 3-2 final aggregate.
The Bavarians, chasing a treble of titles, joins Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals. Here are 5 talking points from the game:
Benfica stuck to their 1st leg strategy and it almost paid dividends
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Heading into the second leg, Benfica’s Coach Rui Vitória would have been pleased with his side’s first leg performance. They defended as a unit and isolated Bayern’s main man, Robert Lewandowski who hardly had a sniff at goal.
Tonight, the home side were without their main attacking threats in Gaitan, Jonas, and Mitroglou. They have sixty-one goals between them this season but the home side stuck to their 4-2-3-1 formation. As much as they wanted to attack Bayern from the get go, they couldn’t do so for obvious reasons.
As usual, Bayern had a major share of possession which meant the home side had to be patient in their approach. But they were duly rewarded with a couple of well-taken goals. The second one as a result of a sublime free kick from Talisa.
Bayern weren’t necessarily better than Benfica on the night. The home side definitely had more than a sniff but the absence of their regular match winners made it an insurmountable task.
Guardiola’s centre back gamble may backfire in the semi-finals
The Spaniard has never shied away from playing his players out of position and tonight was no different. He deployed Joshua Kimmich in the centre back position but it definitely wasn’t new to the twenty-one-year-old who’s had to ply his trade regularly in this role. Pep’s persistence at times seems genius but tonight Kimmich was thoroughly exposed by the Portuguese side.
Jimenez, in particular, caused the diminutive centre back a host of problems with his off the ball movements. The home side were happy to move the ball forward aerially and scored their first goal as a result of this.
Eliseu Pereira whipped in a delightful looking cross which found Raul Jimenez who was surrounded by three Bayern players. That didn’t deter the Mexican from guiding his header past the oncoming Neuer.
One can only wonder what could have transpired if Benfica had their first choice players at their disposal.
Vidal bails out Bayern on a difficult night
The visitors had a nervy start to the game and went behind in the 27th minute. But the Chilean resorted parity ten minutes later with a stunning half-volley from outside the box. In doing so, he scored his second goal of the tie and gave his side a much-needed boost who looked a bit flat until the equalizer.
The Estádio do Sport Lisboa was buzzing with energy and Pep’s men had to dig deep to silence the home crowd. Bayern Coach, Pep Guardiola managed to turn heads with his team selection for the night.
The Catalan decided to bench his star striker, Lewandowski who had failed to find the net in his three previous outings. The visitors are on an unbeaten run of twelve away games and are the top scorers in the Champions League with twenty-eight goals. For all their dominance they didn’t create too many open chances in the first half.
If Pep has intentions of leaving Germany with a parting gift, he’d do well to have a plan B against more efficient sides in the final four.
Philipp Lahm solid as always
“We must improve and we must improve fast. We are still winning games, though, and have been doing well defensively. But we have to work on our efficiency”, so said Bayern’s most intelligent player prior to the match.
Philipp Lahm gave a master class in positioning and movement to the world. At times, he sat in the middle of the park and on other occasions he looked at ease in the right back position. The 32-year-old continues to exhibit versatility of the highest order.
Benfica maintained a solid shape for large parts of the first half. During such times, Lahm provided an attacking outlet at the right with his late runs down the flank. Bayern scored their 400th goal of the tournament and it came on a special night. Lahm now holds the joint German record for most Champions League appearances alongside legendary keeper, Oliver Kahn.
103 is the number of times Lahm has played in Europe’s elite competition. Legendary stuff from a legendary player.
Thomas Müller the unheralded forward Bayern can count on
There are players who capture your imagination every time they have the ball at their feet. Bayern have a number of players in this mould- Costa, Ribery, Robben, Lewandowski. Then there are those players who may not have the natural flare but they compensate for it in numerous ways.
They run hard, work hard and they play hard. Thomas Müller is one such player. With the match tied at 1-1, The Bavarian scored a typical striker’s goal to ease the pressure of his coach and give his team some much-needed breathing space.
The goal which came from a corner was Müller's 29th in all competitions and 8th in the Champions League in as many appearances. Just another big goal on another big night from Bayern Munich’s most underrated yet by far most loved player.
With Lewandowski on the bench, Bayern’s number 25 took it upon himself to create problems for Benfica’s central defenders. He was shrewd in his approach and was duly rewarded with a goal.
