Jonathan Wilson on Thomas Müller
Right then. Semi-finals done. The final will be played on Sunday at 8pm BST (other time zones are available). Bye!
Here’s David Hytner’s match report:
The Bayern Munich juggernaut rolls on. Hansi Flick’s team are packed with so many attacking weapons that if some of them do not get you, it feels inevitable that another one will. Here, it was Serge Gnabry who inflicted the fatal cuts on Lyon to set up a mouthwatering final with Paris St-Germain on Sunday.
Gnabry made the difference during a scintillating first-half burst to leave Flick dreaming of the perfect finale to his debut season. It feels remarkable to write that until his appointment at Bayern last November, the 55-year-old had never taken charge of a top-flight club.
Much more here:
Alphonso Davies has a quick chat:
It feels good. Everyone’s happy, everyone’s playing well. For me it’s a dream come true. There’s definitely going to be goals in [the final]. It’s what you dream of as a footballer, playing against the best in Europe, and we’re able to do that so I’m excited. We know we have solid guys in the back, we try to get the ball forward as much as possible and it seems to be working. These guys, they’ve basically won everything, but they’re still hungry to win this one.
Gnabry’s first goal was worth a place in the Champions League final on its own, but while fearsome Bayern also have frailties. In the first 10 minutes of the quarter-final Barcelona looked like they were going to get into double figures, and Lyon had four or five excellent chances tonight. Bayern’s pressing is excellent, they have pace from Davies on the left and Gnabry on the right, Muller’s brilliant movement in the middle, and Lewandowski Lewandowskiing, but for any opponents with pace of their own and a clinical finisher or two, there’s hope.
Robert Lewandowski is a Champions League final hat-trick away from making history:
⚽️ Most goals in a #UCL season:
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) August 19, 2020
17 Cristiano Ronaldo, 2013-14
16 Cristiano Ronaldo, 2015-16
15 Cristiano Ronaldo, 2017-18
15 Robert Lewandowski, 2019-20 pic.twitter.com/2mKduVl9dq
Final score: Olympique Lyonnais 0-3 Bayern Munich
90+4 mins: It’s all over, and Bayern Munich will play Paris St-Germain in the 2020 Champions League final!
90+2 mins: One last missed chance, Tolisso scooping Coman’s pull-back over the bar from 10 yards.
90+1 mins: There are three minutes of stoppage time between Bayern Munich and the Champions League final.
90 mins: Another free-kick, another Kimmich cross, and Muller heads wide.
GOAL! Lyon 0-3 Bayern Munich (Lewandowski, 88 mins)
Bayern win another free-kick on the right, Kimmich curls it in and Lewandowski doesn’t have to do anything very clever to move away from Marcelo and head in at the far post!
Updated
86 mins: Thiago Mendes is booked for an exaggerated follow-through after clearing the ball that ended with his studs planted in Kimmich’s back.
Updated
84 mins: Aouar, who had a quiet first half but has improved in the second, and especially since he took the armband when Depay went off, has a shot from the edge of the area that Neuer saves.
82 mins: Bayern take off Alcántara and Goretzka, and bring on Corentin Tolisso and Benjamin Pavard.
81 mins: Now Goretzka shoots from 25 yards, but into the back of Muller, who’s running from right to left for no obvious reason but the sheer love of making runs.
80 mins: The Brazilian runs onto Muller’s shot, controls, and taps past Lopes. He was onside when the German took aim, but Goretzka also tried to control it and if he made contact then Coutinho is indeed offside, and that’s obviously the decision.
80 mins: Coutinho puts the ball in the net, but the flag goes up!
78 mins: Oooh! Tete runs down the right, and when Lyon lose the ball Neuer instantly throws it to Coutinho, well beyond the halfway line, who runs to the edge of the area and has a shot that deflects just wide.
75 mins: Hansi Flick has seen enough of Gnabry, and brings Coutinho on instead.
75 mins: Aouar gets to the byline and pulls back to Cherki, who scuffs a left-footer wide.
73 mins: Another Lyon substitution, and Rayan Cherki comes on for Marçal.
72 mins: Lyon have a sustained spell of pressure, but they can’t create anything more than a rubbish cross.
71 mins: After Gnabry’s brace if Reine-Adelaide gets a goal or two it would really cap Arsene Wenger’s humiliation.
68 mins: Alaba lifts a ball into the area, Muller runs onto it and hits a first-time cross, and Lewandowski throws himself at it and turns it goalwards, but so slowly it wouldn’t have crossed the line even if Lopes hadn’t picked it up.
67 mins: More substitutional action for Lyon. Léo Dubois and Karl Toko Ekambi trot off, and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde and Kenny Tete come on.
66 mins: Lewandowski, who has looked better the further away from goal he has been, executes a nice turn on the halfway line and passes to Muller.
63 mins: Ivan Perisic, who has been quiet today, is replaced by Kingsley Coman.
60 mins: Now Ekambi finds space on the right, and hits a very strange thing that certainly isn’t a pass, definitely can’t be a shot and isn’t any kind of cross. The upshot is that Bayern get the ball.
59 mins: That was a poor miss, and must be terribly dispiriting for Lyon’s players.
Updated
58 mins: What a chance for Lyon! Sule’s clearance hits Dembele, Aouar runs free on the left and squares to Ekambi, whose shot hits Neuer’s trailing leg!
58 mins: Memphis Depay goes off, and Moussa Dembélé comes on.
56 mins: Chance! Marcelo meets the corner and heads low and goalwards, but with neither the power nor the accuracy to beat Manuel Neuer.
55 mins: Sule turns a Lyon cross behind, and Memphis Depay seems convinced he used an arm. Replays suggest he’s wrong, and what’s more that he wasn’t even looking.
51 mins: A chance for a third! Perisic is played beyond the defence, but his shoot from the edge of the area is a bit feeble.
51 mins: Ekambi and Davies have engaged in a couple of foot races so far this half, which have both ended with emphatic wins for the Bayern starlet. “Lyon may want to submit an IT helpdesk ticket because they are in desperate need of better Serge protection,” puns Peter Oh.
48 mins: Goretzka spots Muller racing into the penalty area and curls in a cross from deep that bounces just beyond his teammate.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! The second half has begun. Lyon bring Thiago Mendes on for Bruno Guimarães, and Bayern bring Niklas Süle on for Jérôme Boateng.
The players are on their way back out, and it looks like there’s at least one substitution happening for each team.
An excellent 45 minutes of football for the neutral, though it would have been improved had Lyon taken one of their early chances. Gnabry’s opener was superb; his second was scrappy, and that’ll probably do for Bayern. Perhaps Moussa Dembélé will shake things up a bit when he comes on?
“I’ll get more specific than Matt Richman (27min) and remind everyone that Gnabry was at the Hawthorns in 2015 and Tony Pulis couldn’t find a way to get him into West Brom’s team, playing him in one league game for 12 minutes in a span of five months,” notes JR. There are certain fans of English football for whom Gnabry is nothing but a walking Wenger/Pulis humiliation generator.
Half time: Lyon 0-2 Bayern Munich
45+1 mins: Two goals, a couple of bookings and all sorts of madness and the referee allows two seconds of stoppage time. Half of the time has been played, and Lyon have got a lot of work to do.
43 mins: Goretzka has a shot from 25 yards. He obviously thinks it would have gone in, because he has his head in his hands after Lewandowski runs across and blocks it with his arse.
42 mins: Lewandowski is taken out by Fernando Marçal, who joins Marcelo in the book.
41 mins: Ikambi runs beyond Bayern’s defence, which is holding a line high enough to give Kylian Mbappe all sorts of exciting thoughts, but Neuer comes out and defenders get back and nothing comes of it.
38 mins: Lewandowski misses a tap-in! Gnabry’s curler from the right-hand corner of the area is surely intended to go in without any assistance, but as it flies just wide Lewandowski reacts and throws out a foot only to miss it completely, from maybe a yard out!
Updated
36 mins: Turns out Marcelo tried to stop Lewandowski spinning into space as Bayern won the ball in defence by throwing out a hand, which made contact with the Pole’s neck. It probably is a booking, but Lewandowski didn’t really need to fling himself to the ground holding his face.
35 mins: Marcelo is booked for doing something mean to Lewandowski, at least 50 yards off the ball.
GOAL! Lyon 0-2 Bayern Munich (Gnabry, 33 mins)
There is the second! Perisic gets space on the left and crosses low to Lewandowski, who somehow fails to turn it in! But the ball rebounds off Lopes to Gnabry, who has an extremely easy finish.
Updated
31 mins: Lewandowski nearly gets in, only for Lopes to rush out and get in the way. A corner ensues, from which Lewandowski heads over the bar.
30 mins: Lyon seem keener not to concede a second than they are to score an equaliser, and as a result they aren’t really threatening, are keeping the ball less well, and seem more likely to concede a second.
27 mins: Davies runs down the left, cuts inside, and then shoots into a thicket of bodies. It’s a poor decision but no matter, he was offside anyway. “It is always worth remembering in times like these,” writes Matt Richman, “that two English clubs gave Gnabry a grand total of 11 appearances between them from 2012-2016. What an excellent goal.”
25 mins: Save! A poor defensive header falls to Gnabry, who instantly slams a low left-footer goalwards, but Lopes pushes it clear.
🛣️ Serge Gnabry in Champions League away games this season:
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) August 19, 2020
🆚 Lyon ⚽️
🆚 Barcelona ⚽️🅰️
🆚 Chelsea ⚽️⚽️
🆚 Olympiacos ❌
🆚 Tottenham ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️🅰️ pic.twitter.com/E758WDZuMx
22 mins: A chance for another! Bayern win a free-kick 45 yards out and Thiago Alcantara chips it over a dozing defence, Muller runs onto it, and he completely mishits his shot from almost exactly the same spot from which Goretzka did the same a while back.
GOAL! Lyon 0-1 Bayern Munich (Gnabry, 18 mins)
Bayern take the lead with an absolute beauty! Kimmich chips the ball over Cornet to find him in space on the right and Gnabry, cuts infield, cuts further infield, surges to the edge of the area and then lashes a left-footer that screams inside the far post!
Updated
17 mins: Lyon hit a post! Ekambi is released down the right, and though Davies blocks his initial effort he seizes upon the rebound, cuts inside, and then shoots into the near post!
16 mins: If a match without chances or great attacking intent is sterile, then this match is filthy. It’s positively diseased. “In kerning news, disappointing to see that the captions for HANSI FLICK had careful letter spacing, something that didn’t always do Clint Dempsey any favours,” notes Charles Antaki.
13 mins: Cornet benefits from a helpful ricochet on the left, spies Ekambi unmarked in front of goal, and Boateng does well to cut out the pass.
12 mins: Now Lyon go forward, and Depay’s curling cross-or-maybe-a-shot from the left side of the area flies just over Ekambi and just wide of the back stick.
11 mins: Bayern nearly score! Goretzka seizes on a loose ball deep in Lyon’s half, plays a one-two with Lewandowski and then mishits his shot so hopelessly that it nearly spins into the far corner, Lopes eventually flinging himself across to turn it wide!
9 mins: Lyon win a corner, which is played short to Leo Dubois, who lifts it into the area where Neuer has to rush out to deny Denayer and punch clear.
7 mins: A very promising opening. Lyon try to play the ball out of defence but Bayern harry them into turning backwards and Anthony Lopes slices his clearance into touch.
4 mins: Lyon nearly score! Maxence Cacaret plays a fine early pass to Depay, running between Bayern’s centre-backs, and he sprints from the halfway line into the penalty area, moves right past Neuer and then spears a shot wide of the near post!
Updated
2 min: Bayern have played the ball around a bit, while Lyon’s three touches so far can be roughly described as thwack, blam, and hoof, and have all had the common aim of getting the ball downfield sharpish.
1 min: Peeeeep! Bayern, all in red, get the ball rolling.
The anthem has been blared, the coin tossed, and football is about to be played.
The players are in the tunnel! Kick-off should happen in five minutes or so.
“Really helpful of Bayern to announce their team in numerical squad order,” moans Mark Hooper, “so we have absolutely no idea of the shape of the team - unless they’re springing a surprise back three of Thiago, Lewandowski and Perisic?”
Not sure about that. Here’s some helpful formation diagrams that someone else has made:
Alineaciones de Lyon y Bayern para la semifinal de la #ChampionsxFOX pic.twitter.com/aNvm2Wvkva
— Andre Marín (@andremarinpuig) August 19, 2020
Everybody was astonished by Barcelona’s ineptaptitude against Bayern Munich, says Steve McManaman on BT Sport.
Memphis Depay’s sunglasses-and-mask look is a strong one, I think.
Here are the teams again, in purely text-based form:
Lyon: Lopes, Denayer, Marcelo, Marcal, Dubois, Caqueret, Bruno Guimaraes, Aouar, Cornet, Depay, Toko Ekambi. Subs: Andersen, Da Silva, Dembele, Traore, Thiago Mendes, Reine-Adelaide, Cherki, Jean Lucas, Tete, Tatarusanu, Bard, Diomande.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Kimmich, Boateng, Alaba, Davies, Thiago, Goretzka, Gnabry, Muller, Perisic, Lewandowski. Subs: Odriozola, Sule, Pavard, Javi Martinez, Coutinho, Cuisance, Lucas, Tolisso, Ulreich, Coman, Zirkzee, Hoffmann.
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain).
Here’s the big pot that is up for grabs in Lisbon this week, getting a little pre-match attention.
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and here are tonight’s protagonists:
La composition de notre équipe pour affronter le Bayern ! 🔴🔵#OLFCB pic.twitter.com/Hyj0OfTYG6
— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) August 19, 2020
🔴⚪ Mit dieser XI ins Finale! 💪 #packmas #OLFCB #MissionLis6on #UCL pic.twitter.com/nxXXELpoyQ
— FC Bayern München (@FCBayern) August 19, 2020
Hello world!
The season is finally drawing to a close. Just three fixtures remain in the (men’s) European season, and the big question is: can anyone stall the Bayern train? The bookmakers are pretty sure that Lyon won’t - you can get 11-1 against the French side winning this single match, an extraordinary level of favouritism for a one-off neutral-venue match between elite teams, particularly since they have already seen off Juventus and Manchester City. But Bayern produced the performance, and the result, of the Champions League season in their quarter-final against Barcelona, and you’d have thought their tails will be not so much up as fully airborne. Can Lyon conjure another upset tonight? Let’s find out, shall we?
