Bayern beats Chelsea to win UEFA Super Cup 2014

PRAGUE (AP) — Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved a penalty by substitute Romelu Lukaku to giveChampions League winner Bayern Munich a 5-4 victory over Chelsea in a shootout Friday to claim the UEFA Super Cup, after the game finished 2-2 following extra time.

Ten-man Chelsea looked on the verge of victory afterEden Hazard made it 2-1 in extra time but substituteJavi Martinez equalized with the last kick of the game to force the shootout.

All nine players converted their penalties before Lukaku stepped up, and Neuer dove to his left to keep the shot out.

Fernando Torres had given Europa League winner Chelsea an early lead with a fierce volley, beforeFranck Ribery equalized two minutes into the second half with a hard shot that seemed to catch Petr Cechby surprise.

Bayern won its first Super Cup in the club's fourth attempt, earning a first trophy with the team for new coach Pep Guardiola.

"It's the first time, we're proud of that," Guardiola said. "We played unbelievably good football. I'm so happy with our performance."

Guardiola took over Bayern after a one-year sabbatical, and the team has started the German season strongly by picking up 10 points out of a possible 12 in the Bundesliga.

"(The victory) is great for the entire team but it means even more for the coach," Ribery said.

Chelsea was left a man down when Ramires was sent off in the 85th minute after receiving his second yellow card for a rough tackle on substitute Mario Goetze.

That decision clearly upset Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho who was trying to get an explanation from referee Jonas Eriksson during the break before extra time.

Mourinho has never won the Super Cup while it was the third victory for his fierce rival Guardiola who also won it with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011.

Mourinho, who had promised that his second spell with Chelsea will be calmer than when he was in charge in 2004-07, said he was "disappointed."

"My opinion is that the best team lost," he said. "The team that more deserved to win lost. But that's football. Sometimes, it happens in football."

Mourinho and Guardiola faced each other in series of testy 'clasicos' when the Portuguese coach was with Real Madrid, and their tense relationship brought an extra level of intensity to this Super Cup. The contest that pits last season's Champions League winner against the Europa League champion is often seen as lacking prestige, but it was clear from the start that both teams badly wanted to win this game.

And Guardiola, unsurprisingly, clearly disagreed with Mourinho.

"Yes, the better team has won," he said in German.

Mourinho complained the sending off of Ramires influenced the result and suggested that referees in the Premier League would not have given a player a second booking in such a case.

"Football is 11 against 11," Mourinho said. "Eleven against 10, it's more easy for the team with 11 and more difficult for the team with 10."

Throughout the match, Bayern was dominating possession while Chelsea relied on what Guardiola on Thursday called Mourinho's most dangerous weapon: quick counters.

Torres, who returned to the starting lineup after beginning on the bench against Manchester United on Monday, started the quick move leading to the opening goal. He passed to Eden Hazard who produced a strong run through the middle of the field before finding Andre Schurrle on the right flank, who squared for Torres to net with an unstoppable right-foot volley from inside the area.

A day after winning the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the 2012-2013 season, Bayern midfielder Ribery looked dangerous throughout and equalized two minutes into the second half with an swerving drive from outside the area. He also had a shot just wide two minutes after scoring the goal and again in extra time. He also missed the target three times in the first half. In the 22nd he almost restored parity, forcing Cech into a brilliant diving save with curling low shot.

Three minutes into extra time, Hazard picked up the ball on the left flank and cut into the area, leaving two defenders behind before unleashing a powerful drive past Neuer for what looked likely to be the winner.

Cech then pulled off a series of stunning saves as Bayern pressed relentlessly for an equalizer — until Martinez slotted in from close range with the very last kick of extra time.

Bayern Munich wins Champions League 2012/2013

With minutes left to play and the biggest game in club football once again in his hands, Arjen Robben made sure he didn't miss this time.

Robben found redemption at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, scoring the winner in the 89th minute of the Champions League final to give Bayern a 2-1 victory over German rival Borussia Dortmund — ending four years of frustration for his team in Europe's biggest tournament and erasing some of the painful memories of his penalty miss in last year's final.

"I don't know how many times I dreamed about it," Robben said. "Everybody I spoke to before the game I said, 'Today is going to be the night and we're going to do it.' To do it in the end is an unbelievable feeling."

This was a win that was long in the making for both Robben and Bayern, not only because of the stubborn challenge from a Dortmund side that refused to accept its status as underdog in the club's biggest game in 16 years. Bayern had lost two of the last three Champions League finals, including the gut-wrenching defeat in a penalty shootout to Chelsea last year in its own stadium in Munich.

Robben missed a penalty in extra time in that game, a mistake that stung the Bayern fans so much that many temporarily turned against him. This time, when he carried the European Cup toward the thousands of celebrating red-and-white fans and raised it over his head, there was nothing but undivided adulation in return.

'I don't know how many times I dreamed about it. Everybody I spoke to before the game I said, 'Today is going to be the night and we're going to do it.' To do it in the end is an unbelievable feeling.'—Bayern Munich's Arjen Robben

"There are so many emotions, especially after where we came from. Last year was such a disappointment," Robben said. "We've spoken about it. The last four years, we've been in the final three times. It needed to happen but you still have to do it."

In a game that featured a slew of chances for both teams, Mario Mandzukic put Bayern ahead in the 60th minute at Wembley Stadium before Ilkay Gundogan levelled from the penalty spot eight minutes later, after defender Dante fouled Marco Reus in the area.

Robben had missed two great chances in the first half, reviving memories of last year and even of the 2010 World Cup final, when the winger missed the Netherlands' best chance when he came one-on-one with Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas and missed.

Even Bayern great Franz Beckenbauer, the club's honorary president, said on TV during halftime that "evidently in the big games he just can't score."

But this time, he could.

Robben ran onto Franck Ribery's backheeled flick-on in the area and calmly slotted the ball past goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller to give Bayern its first Champions League victory since 2001. Bayern lost to Inter Milan in the 2010 final.

"That's three finals and of course you don't want the stamp of a loser, you don't want that tag," Robben said. "It was a sense of 'finally.' It was unbelievable, I can't describe what's going through my mind."

Robben also set up the first goal for Bayern, taking a pass from Ribery and drawing Weidenfeller out toward the touchline before squaring for Mandzukic, who could hardly miss from a few yards out.

But the lead didn't last long. Dante clumsily clattered into Reus in the area, and Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli pointed to the spot. Gundogan sent Manuel Neuer the wrong way before calmly slotting his spot kick into the right side of the net.

'Disappointment'

But Dortmund seemed to tire toward the end, and Bayern had a couple of good chances before Robben's late winner.

"It's hard to deal with the disappointment right now, especially if you concede the goal in the 89th minute," Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said. "In the end we had become a little tired and Bayern took advantage."

The European Cup title caps a spectacular season for Bayern, which broke a host of Bundesliga records in running away with the German league title — finishing an unprecedented 25 points ahead of second-place Dortmund.

It can still complete a treble, as it faces Stuttgart in the German Cup final next Saturday.

Regardless of that result, coach Jupp Heynckes will leave the German powerhouse in perfect style. Heynckes, who is stepping down at the end of the season, won his second Champions League trophy after leading Real Madrid to the title in 1998. He will be replaced by Pep Guardiola next season, but the former Barcelona coach will have a hard time improving on this Bayern side — which dismantled the Spanish giants 7-0 on aggregate in the semifinals.

"It's incredible what the team had achieved in the last few years. And today we were finally rewarded. We had to overcome a lot of setbacks," Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said. "There was so much pressure, it was enormous. After you lose two finals, if you lose again you don't know if you'll get another chance. The pressure was so great, I've never felt so much pressure before. The international titles were missing, we never won a big international title for this generation."

For Dortmund, it's another bitter runner-up finish to its main rival, having seen Bayern end its two-year hold on the Bundesliga title.

"We are very proud to have given them a good contest," Weidenfeller said. "But we didn't manage to win. We gave our best. We'll be back next season."

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2013/05/25/sp-soccer-champions-league-final.html