Bayern claim Bulls Cup in Salzburg

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1395 votes: 2

13.02.2007

Bayern's short trip over the Austrian border to Salzburg for the inaugural Bulls Cup triangular tournament ended in success for Ottmar Hitzfeld and his men, after a makeshift Bayern side defeated Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 before overcoming hosts Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 on penalties to claim the trophy.

A 17,000 crowd at the Bulls Arena saw Bayern make light of the absence of eight rested or injured regulars, as they tore into the Japanese double winners in the first of their two 45-minute encounters. Munich then more than held their own on the compact stadium's artificial turf to seal a narrow shoot-out victory over the home team.

Brace for Roque

Bayern raced off the blocks in their first "half" of the tournament against Urawa, Andreas Görlitz providing a perfect 10th minute lay-off for Roque Santa Cruz to open the scoring. The German champions proceeded to dominate the play and created a number of openings, Santa Cruz doubling the advantage from Mehmet Scholl's assist on 33 minutes.

Scholl's 36th minute free-kick sailed narrowly wide and Bastian Schweinsteiger saw a 40th minute thunderbolt cannon back into play off the bar, before Claudio Pizarro converted from Ali Karimi's impressive build-up to round off the scoring four minutes from time. Yuichiro Nagai missed the Japanese champions' best opening on 13 minutes when his shot rebounded off the underside of the crossbar.

Bayern 3-0 Urawa Red Diamonds

Bayern Munich: Rensing – Görlitz, Lell, Demichelis, Fürstner – Karimi, Van Bommel, Schweinsteiger, Scholl (Kroos 44) – Pizarro, Santa Cruz

Goals: 1-0 Santa Cruz (10), 2-0 Santa Cruz (33), 3-0 Pizarro (41)

Austrian league leaders Salzburg had beaten Urawa 3-1 in the first 45-minute game of the evening, so the near-neighbours from Germany and Austria met to settle the destination of the trophy. Bayern were unable to reproduce the sparkling football they had previously conjured up against the Tokyo outfit, as a line-up featuring youngsters such as Mats Hummels and 17-year-old sub Toni Kroos battled to a stalemate against the home team.

The Bulls were coached by former Bayern heroes Lothar Matthäus and Giovanni Trapattoni, and included ex-Reds Alexander Zickler and Markus Steinhöfer in their line-up. The best chance of the game fell to Zickler after 29 minutes, but Olli Kahn deputy Michael Rensing pulled off a good save. Christian Saba made a desperate clearance two minutes later to deny the 33-year-old striker, before the man fondly known in Munich as "Zico" headed over the bar.

Rensing stars in shoot-out

With the sides deadlocked, the meeting went to a sudden death shoot-out, Rensing beating out two spot-kicks to decide the issue in his side's favour. "It was a wonderful evening with some wonderful football," Bayern general manager Uli Hoeneß summarised afterwards.

Bayern 0-0 Red Bulls Salzburg (Bayern win 3-2 on penalties)

Bayern Munich: Rensing – Görlitz, Hummels, Lell, Saba – Ottl, Schweinsteiger, Scholl (Kroos 34) – Pizarro, Santa Cruz, Podolski

Penalty shoot-out: 1-0 Podolski, 1-1 Zickler, Ochs saved from Schweinsteiger, Rensing saved from Jezek, 2-1 Santa Cruz, 2-2 Vargas, 3-2 Pizarro, Rensing saved from Pitak

podolski4life

This should be a real confidence booster for Bayern.

FC Bajern · Guest

...and for Rensing, for saving two penalties. He is following in his ancestors footsteps Very Happy