Lewandowski's double against Al Ahly fires Bayern to Club World Cup final
Reading Time: 3min | Mon. 08.02.21. | 22:52
Robert Lewandowski bagged a brace to send Bayern Munich to the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup at the expense of Al Ahly.
Bayern Munich booked a slot in their second-ever final of the FIFA Club World Cup after cruising to a 2-0 victory over Al Ahly Cairo to book a date with Mexican champions Tigres UNAL.
Al Ahly will now face Palmeiras in the third-place playoffs after going down to a double from Robert Lewandowski in the semis.
Al Ahly went into the clash looking to rewrite history and become the first African side to clinch the FIFA Club World Cup with TP Mazembe being the only African side to make it into the final.
Bayern were in search for their own bit of history with head coach Hans-Dieter Flick looking to become the first-ever Bayern manager to win the Bundesliga, German Cup, German Super Cup, Champions League, European Super Cup and World Cup in the club's illustrious history.
In a clash billed "David versus Goliath", despite Al Ahly being the most successful club in football, Bayern dominated the opening exchanges as expected and were unlucky not to go ahead in the eighth minute when Benjamin Pavard delivered a brilliant cross from the right-wing with Serge Gnabry’s header missing the target narrowly.
After staging a fine resistance with some well drilled defending, Al Ahly's defence was unlocked in the 17th minute when Kingsley Coman whipped in a cross from the right and found Gnabry on the other side who cut back the ball to Lewandowski to fire past Elshenawy.
Twenty-nine âš½
— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) February 8, 2021
???? Al Ahly 0-2 #FCBayern pic.twitter.com/lCwTSSKA24
The Pole has continued his rich vein of form from last season when scored a whopping total of 55 goals in 47 matches across all competitions and is on course to smash the staggering tally as he has so far netted 28 goals in 27 games.
Al Ahly’s first real opening of the game came in the 21st minute when Taher Mohamed flicked on the ball via a clever header just outside the box and sent the ball towards Manuel Neuer's right corner with the German shot-stopper getting his hand on the ball.
Arguably African’s best coach Pitso Moismane was forced to an early change when Maaloul has suffered an injury and elected Ibrahim to replace him as they went into the half time break trailing 0-1.
The reigning European champions continued with their dominance in possession in the second half but the Egyptian giants grew into the game in the second half as they started to cause some threat in front of the Bayern goal.
Bayern finally laid their hands on the elusive second goal that would assure them of a slot in Thursday’s final in the 85th minute when Sane got the ball on the right flank and delivered a cross right on the goal line which found an entirety unmarked Lewandowski who then headed the ball home for his second-ever goal in the competition.
