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Bayern Munich take to the podium to receive their winners medals. Manuel Neuer finally gets something to do this evening: he lifts the Club World Cup! Up it goes, along with a few jets of golden ticker tape. Down go the lights. Up go some fireworks. And that’s that! Congratulations to Bayern, who complete an historic sextuple. Commiserations to Tigres, who made a truly great side fight hard for their prize. Thanks for reading this MBM. Stay safe and warm, everybody. Nighty night!
Al Ahly come up to receive their bronze medals. Then Tigres - awarded a guard of honour by Bayern - are awarded their silver baubles. Manuel Neuer will be getting his hands on the Club World Cup in short order.
The players of the tournament. Joshua Kimmich wins the bronze ball, Andre Pierre Gignac is awarded silver, and the golden ball goes to Robert Lewandowski, who scored two in the semi-final and masterminded the winner in the final. Lewandowski also gets a bauble from the sponsors.
Robert Lewandowski talks. “We really wanted to win today. The goal that we scored was probably from the first cross that came in. I said to the boys at half-time, come on, put a few more crosses in. They managed it once and that’s how we won the sextuple, and that’s an amazing thing! It’s a shame that Thomas Muller wasn’t able to be here. We are flying back straight home to Munich, there is no time to celebrate.”
Bayern celebrate, though they’re relieved more than delirious. They were deserved winners - Neuer had absolutely nothing to do, and Kimmich had a good goal ruled out in the first half - but nevertheless were made to work hard for their prize by the tenacious Tigres. They’ve won all six trophies available to them in the calendar year of 2020 (yeah, yeah) and equal the feat of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team of 2009/10. It’s their second Club World Cup win, and they’re the eighth European winners of this tournament in a row.
FULL TIME: Bayern Munich 1-0 Tigres
Bayern Munich complete the sextuple. They’re champions of the world!
90 min +4: Gignac tries to find Guzman, who has come up to cause bother. Bayern half clear. Gignac returns the ball - a shot or cross? - but sends it sailing over the bar. It’s surely over.
90 min +3: Salcedo is clipped to the ground by Tolisso, 35 yards out. One last chance to launch an attack and force the game to extra time.
90 min +2: Costa, who has been effervescent since coming on, speeds down the left before checking back to retain possession. The clock ticks on.
90 min +1: The first minute passes by without drama. That Gignac half-chance apart, Tigres haven’t really responded to going behind. It’s now or never.
90 min: Carioca is booked for a clatter on Tolisso. Bayern are four added minutes away from becoming champions of the world.
89 min: Costa dribbles at pace from right to left. He slips Choupo-Moting into the box. Choupo-Moting leans back and grazes the top of the crossbar with an ever-rising shot. Penny for the thoughts of Lewandowski.
88 min: Choupo-Moting works his way down the inside left and nearly breaks into the box, but Salcedo - that daft backwards header apart - continues a fine performance with a deft block.
86 min: It’s not totally clear how Bayern have scored just the one. Then again, had Gignac timed his bicycle kick a little better, we could be heading to extra time. The fine margins when you’re trying to become world champions, huh.
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84 min: Guzman makes two huge stops in quick succession. First he comes out to clear, only for Salcedo to head past him! Guzman races back to stop the ball on the goalline. Then Choupo-Moting dribbles down the right and cuts back for Costa, who creams a shot towards the top right. Guzman parries spectacularly.
82 min: A Tigres throw into the Bayern box from the left. Gonzalez flicks on. Gignac, on the edge of the six-yard box, tries a bicycle kick but gets his timing all wrong. Fresh air. That was a decent chance!
81 min: Tolisso has a dig from distance, aiming for the bottom left. It’s not particularly well-hit, but Guzman lets his hands flap back and the ball bumble past. He’s extremely fortunate that the ball comes off the base of the post and back into his arms. Shades of Gianluca Pagliuca in the 1994 World Cup final.
80 min: Tigres send on another Quinones. Julian replaces Rodriguez; Luis Quinones continues to prowl the left flank.
79 min: A first look for Musiala, who makes good down the left but delivers a directionless cross. Kimmich delivers an old-style bollocking.
77 min: ... but it’s not as though he’s replacing them with nonsense. Costa strides down the right and curls a dangerous ball towards the far post. Tolisso isn’t too far away from running it home. Goal kick.
76 min: That’s a bold gambit by Hansi Flick. With Muller out, Lewandowski is by some distance the main source of goals for this Bayern line-up.
74 min: A triple substitution by Bayern. Sane, Coman and - surprisingly - Lewandowski make way for Costa, Musiala and Choupo-Moting.
73 min: Tolisso has a belt from distance. It’s not far over.
72 min: Kimmich rides a couple of challenges and forces a pass down the left flank for Davies, who would have had acres to sprint into had he not taken his eye off the ball and let it roll out for a throw.
70 min: The free kick’s whipped in from the left. Tolisso wins a header on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, but can’t steer it on target. Goal kick.
69 min: Coman turns on the jets. He’s about to zip away down the left touchline, but Rodriguez hangs out an arm and cynically brings him down. That was right in the kisser, and Rodriguez is a wee bit fortunate that it’s only yellow.
67 min: Gignac floats the free kick into the Bayern box. Hernadez dives to head clear. The ball bashes into Alaba’s chest. Tigres claim for a penalty again, but that’s not going to happen for them.
66 min: Sane clips Quinones, 35 yards from goal. Before the free kick can be taken, Kimmich pops up to start an argument. He’s clearly doing it for sport, because only the Tigres players are getting irate. They’re a little bit rattled after conceding the goal.
65 min: Tolisson comes on for Gnabry.
63 min: Tigres claim a penalty, Quinones dribbling into the Bayern box from the left. Pavard slides in to dispossess, then the ball’s played onto his arm. He could do nothing about it, and neither referee nor VAR is interested.
62 min: Lewandowski looked clearly offside in the first instance, but another shot shows Salcedo’s heel playing the big man onside.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-0 Tigres (Pavard 61)
It goes to VAR. A long, long wait. Then the ref performs the internationally recognised mime for TV, and doesn’t even go to the monitor! It’s a goal! Pavard scored it two minutes ago, but 61 minutes it is.
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59 min: Bayern have the ball in the net again, but this time it’s offside. Kimmich floats a right-to-left diagonal into the Tigres box. Lewandowski beats Guzman as the pair duel in the air. The ball drops down to Pavard, who slaps home from ten yards into an empty net. However Lewandowski appeared to have gone a bit early. The flag goes up.
57 min: Salcedo is having a fine game. Now he slides in on Gnabry, timing his tackle perfectly to put a stop to the Bayern man’s gallop.
56 min: Kimmich shovels a pass down the right wing, hoping to spring Sane into the box. Salcedo swans across and intercepts with his chest.
55 min: Gnabry glides down the inside right and shifts the ball inside for Coman, who looks to be through on goal. But Rodriguez reads the danger and comes across just in time to slam the door shut. That’s fine defending.
53 min: A loose touch by Sane. Carioca intercepts. Sane nibbles at his heel, the first sign that Bayern are getting a little frustrated. Tigres are currently breaking up play successfully.
51 min: Alaba drives down the middle and slips a ball to Gnabry, just to the left of the D. He steps into the box and looks for the top right with a power curler. Always high and wide.
50 min: Duenas flings a long throw in the mixer from the left. The ball pings off Gignac’s head and out for a goal kick. Tigres will be more than happy with the patchy nature of this second half so far.
48 min: Bayern pick up the pace. Coman zips past Rodriguez down the left, reaches the byline, and stands one up for Sane, who can’t keep his header down.
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47 min: A slow and scrappy start to the second half. You’d have thought Bayern would want to pick up the pace.
Bayern get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time entertainment. This new book - Fierce Genius by Andy Bollen - looks like a cracking read. It’s one hell of a tale.
HALF TIME: Bayern Munich 0-0 Tigres
Bayern have had a good goal disallowed, and hit the crossbar. But otherwise Guzman in the Tigres goal has had very little to do, and the Mexicans will be very pleased to get to the break level.
45 min: Kimmich’s delivery is nothing short of appalling, battered into the first man, and the chance to sicken Tigres just before the break is spurned. There will be two added minutes.
44 min: Davies drops a shoulder and nips into some space down the left. Aquino sticks out an arm and holds him back. A free kick, 30 yards out.
42 min: Duenas takes his sweet time over a throw. So much so that the referee comes across and flashes yellow. He’s not having any faffing about, is he. A line in the sand regarding time-wasting has been drawn, and it’s not even half-time!
40 min: Kimmich finds himself in the same position as the one from which he scored the disallowed goal. He thinks about taking another crack, then decides against it. Bad choice, because the move peters out soon after.
38 min: Gignac gives Davies a cheeky clip around the lug as the pair battle in the air. Davies executes an Olympic-standard triple roll, over-egging the pudding, a preposterous response that may well have saved Gignac from a booking. Another quiet word.
36 min: Guzman takes an age over a goal kick. He’s got form for this. The referee has a quiet word.
34 min: Reyes is dispossessed by Gnabry, who wins a corner down the left. Gnabry takes it quick, spotting Sane racing into the box from the left, Tigres taking a nap. Sane whistles a rising shot towards the top left. Inches too high. It clips the top of the crossbar. A tad lower and that would have been a goal; Guzman was rooted to the spot and never getting there.
32 min: Neuer flaps the corner clear. Pizarro tries to return it with interest, but his shot is very much 0% APR. Neuer claims the dribbler with a yawn.
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31 min: Quinones bursts down the left. Before chasing his man, Sule looks for a flag that doesn’t rise. The head start he gives Quinones allows him to win a corner.
30 min: Sane tries to burst past Duenas down the right. He nearly breaks through, but Duenas holds firm, and eventually a frustrated Sane shoves him to the ground. It’s a good battle.
28 min: The first Tigres sortie for a while. Aquino dribbles down the left and pulls back for Pizarro, who thinks about shooting from the edge of the D, but hesitates fatally. The move fizzles out.
26 min: They’ve just shown replays of Kimmich’s disallowed goal. It was a preposterous decision to chalk it off. Lewandowski was nowhere near the keeper’s eyeline. Tigres have got away with one big-style.
25 min: Bayern are in the groove now. That was a spectacular five-man attack, and they’re soon coming at Tigres again, Coman cutting in from the left and belting a rising shot towards the top left that Guzman does extremely well to handle.
24 min: Bayern flood forward at super-speed, five on two. Gnabry slips Davies into the box down the left. Davies looks for Lewandowski in the middle, but Salcedo slides in to clear. What an intervention, because a goal looked inevitable there.
23 min: Davies embarks on a power meander down the left. He sashays in from the flank and drives low and hard, straight at Guzman. Lewandowski, in a decent position in the middle, stares at him in that way strikers stare.
22 min: Full marks to Guzman for his loud and sustained complaint. It certainly planted a seed of doubt in the mind of the VAR operative, as well as the referee who decided to reverse his decision upon checking the monitor.
NO GOAL! Bayern Munich 0-0 Tigres
VAR sticks its neb in, and agrees with Guzman. That’s a surprising decision, because Lewandowski didn’t appear to be standing in the keeper’s line as he leapt over the shot. Kimmich is denied a spectacular goal in a big final.
GOAL! Bayern Munich 1-0 Tigres (Kimmich 18)
Bayern open the scoring with a sensational goal! Kimmich, 25 yards out down the inside-right channel, pearls a low diagonal shot into the bottom left. What a sweet strike! Lewandowski had to leap out of the way from an offside position, mind, and Guzman is claiming the striker was standing in his sightline.
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16 min: Tigres come back at Bayern, the speedy Quinones nearly reaching Rafael Carioca’s long pass down the left channel. Neuer is off his line quickly to smother.
15 min: A long pass down the left for the ever-dangerous Davies. He can’t reach the ball before hooking it back into the mixer, but the early signs suggest the Bayern left-back is planning to cause a world of trouble this evening.
14 min: Davies drives into the box from the left but can’t quite sort his feet out when he gets there. It’s a nice fresh start to this final, with both teams looking positive in attack.
13 min: Bayern’s turn to stroke it around without any particular direction.
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11 min: Gignac bustles powerfully down the left. He’s on his own. He holds off two red shirts, and eventually Quinones arrives on the opposite flank. Gignac sprays a pass wide; Quinones scoops a harmless shot over the bar from distance. A fine run by the Frenchman.
10 min: The second one’s no good.
9 min: But suddenly Bayern burst clear, the wonderful Davies tearing down the left and earning Bayern’s first corner of the game. They load the six-yard box. Kimmich whips it in, forcing Guzman to punch over his own bar. A second corner coming up from the right.
8 min: Some sterile possession for Tigres in the middle of the park. They’ll be happy enough with this, and their start.
6 min: Alaba rolls a cute pass down the inside-left channel for Lewandowski in the box. Lewandowski prepares to swivel and shoot, but he’s blocked by Salcedo. After a slow start that lasted all of three minutes, Bayern are beginning to show the Tigres a flash of their teeth.
5 min: Bayern launch their first serious sortie into Tigres territory. The ball falls to Coman, 25 yards out, just to the left of centre. His effort is weak and an easy snaffle for Guzman.
4 min: Alaba rolls a pass down the middle for Lewandowski, who prepares to spin Reyes and release Gnabry down the left. Reyes sticks to the Bayern striker like glue, and snuffs the attack out. Just as well, because Tigres were otherwise extremely light at the back.
2 min: Sane clumsily bundles Aquino over, and this is a free kick just to the left of the Bayern box. Gignac takes, but it doesn’t beat the first man. Still, what a positive start by Tigres.
Tigres get the 2020 Fifa Club World Cup final underway! They’re on the front foot immediately, Quinones curling in from the right, Gignac meeting the cross with a header that’s deflected out for a very early corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but what a statement of intent by the Mexican underdogs.
The teams are out! The stadium is far from full, for obvious reasons, but there are fans in attendance. Tigres have a fetching blue stripe across the front of their shirt, very much the bizarro Boca Juniors. We’ll be off in a minute.
Bayern make three changes to the team named for their semi-final victory over Al Ahly. Leroy Sane, Lucas Hernandez and Niklas Sule are in. Thomas Muller has tested positive for Covid-19; Jerome Boateng is absent for personal reasons, after the tragic death of his former partner; and Marc Roca drops to the bench.
Tigres name the same XI selected for the win over Palmeiras. “Thanks for spelling out the full names of today’s contestants.” No problem, Peter Oh. “I like the Mexican club’s bold choice of working both tigers (Tigres) and a lion (Leon) into theirs. Imagine squeezing in a couple of tigers into the England crest. Three Lions and Some Tigers would simply intimidate their way to another World Cup title.” At the very least, it would no longer scan, forcing everyone to stop singing that lug-bothering song.
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Tigres are also sporting their first-choice kit. Yellow shirts with blue trim, and a crisp, clear pennant in stark contrast with Bayern’s busy effort. No fuss, no messing: it’s got a large drawing of a tiger on it. The Mexicans easily win the gear face-off.
Bayern will be playing in their red shirts. We’ve chosen to illustrate this with a picture of Manuel Neuer’s grey goalkeeping top, but that’s because as captain, he’ll be the one exchanging gifts before kick-off with his opposite number Guido Pizarro, and will you look at the state of that overly fussy pennant. It’s all well and good winning all those trophies, but at what cost to merchandise design?
The teams
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Sule, Lucas, Pavard, Davies, Alaba, Gnabry, Coman, Sane, Kimmich, Lewandowski.
Subs: Hoffmann, Schneller, Sarr, Tolisso, Roca, Tiago Dantas, Musiala, Douglas Costa, Choupo-Moting.
Tigres: Guzman, Duenas, Reyes, Salcedo, Rodriguez, Rafael Carioca, Aquino, Pizarro, Luis Quinones, Gignac, Gonzalez.
Subs: Chavez, Delgado, Ayala, Meza, Cruz, Sanchez, Sierra, Fulgencio, Fernandez, Avalos, Julian Quinones, Vendrechovski.
Al Ahly have won the third-place play-off, beating Palmeiras 3-2 on penalties. The game had ended goalless after 120 minutes. It’s the second time the Egyptians have finished third at the Club World Cup; they took bronze in 2006 as well. Palmeiras thoroughly deserved to lose the shoot-out, simply because one of their players, Rony, decided to use the stage to showcase a contemporary dance routine:
Rony ensina... Como não se cobra um pênalti pic.twitter.com/iVFHNAfwfD
— Diego Guichard (@diegoguichard) February 11, 2021
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Preamble
Welcome to our coverage of the delayed 2020 Fifa World Club Cup final, where we’ll discover who will succeed 2019 winners Liverpool as champions. Will it be Fußball-Club Bayern München e.V. of Germany, the winners of the 2020 Uefa Champions League, or Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León of Mexico, winners of the Concacaf version? We’ll find out in 90 minutes, or perhaps after another 30 minutes of extra time, or even penalties. Strap yourself in ... and yes we will be using the more colloquial Bayern and Tigres.
Should Bayern win, they’ll complete the sextuple of league, both domestic cups, Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup. Only one team has managed that before: Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona vintage of 2009/10. History beckons! But fate is also crooking the finger in the direction of Tigres, who will become the first representative of Concacaf - and by definition Mexico - to become champions of the world.
Who will prevail? Robert Lewandowski, who scored both goals in Bayern’s 2-0 semi-final win over Caf Champions League winners Al Ahly? Or Carlos Gonzalez, who won the penalty that Andre-Pierre Gignac put away in Tigres’ surprise 1-0 victory over Copa Libertadores champs Palmeiras? Other potential heroes are available, and we’ll find out who they are in short order. Kick off is at 6pm GMT, 9pm at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. It’s on!
