Easy victory
August 23, 2011
Bayern Munich cruised to an easy 1-0 victory against FC Zurich on Tuesday, securing its place in the group phase of the Champions League with a 3-0 aggregate score from the two match play-off.
"You never know how these matches end," Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes said. "I think that we played well at home and in Zurich and comfortably went through."
Bayern went into the match with a two-goal advantage from the first leg played in Munich, and quickly added to their lead, as Mario Gomez's left-footed shot found the back of the net in the seventh minute in a sold-out Letzigrund stadium in Zurich.
Thomas Müller, who was playing in place of Bayern's ailing star winger Arjen Robben, set up the goal with a neat pass. Munich coach Heynckes had chosen to leave the Dutch international on the bench after Robben suffered a recurrence of his recent back problems.
Easy win
For the rest of the first half, Bayern appeared more concerned with maintaining its advantage than adding to their lead. Although Zurich saw an opportunity to level the playing field when Admir Mehmedi came within sight of Bayern's goal, he shot wide and missed, sinking the chances of a comeback.
"Unless things would go horribly wrong, we would go through," Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm said. "We wanted an early goal and once we had that, our job was practically done."
Bayern will go into Thursday's draw as one of the 10 play-off winners who join the 22 automatic entrants in the Champions League group-stage draw in Monaco.
Author: Spencer Kimball, Chuck Penfold (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Andy Valvur