By ARMSTRONG VAS
Doha: German giants Bayern Munich — playing with enough variety and firepower — coasted to an emphatic 4-1 win over the Qatar Stars in a friendly at the Lekhwiya Stadium here yesterday.
The Bayern players dazzled before the 6,838 spectators but the fans missed out on seeing two stars who had impressive at last year’s World Cup in Brazil.
German goalkeeper Manuel Neurer and Dutch forward Arjen Robben did not take the field because they couldn’t make it back in time to Doha after attending the Ballon d’Or awards gala in Zurich on Monday night.
Yesterday, the German giants, who are in Qatar for their winter training programme, opened the scoring in the third minute through Sebastian Rode and added a second goal 11 minutes later with Mitchell Weiser getting his name on the scorer’s list.
Qatar Stars pulled one back in the 26th minute, much against the run of play, with forward Hamdi Harbaoui finding the net.
The Bundesliga giants completed their domination of the first-half with another goal two minutes from the break with Frenchman Frank Ribery beating the Qatar Stars keeper with his adroit placement.
Bayern Munich, who were in Doha for the fifth successive year, started the game on a fluent note and it did not take much time to break open the rival defence.
Success came their way when Thomas Muller set up Rode with a perfect pass for Rode to beat goalkeeper Claude Amin with a fierce drive which lodged into the back of the net.
A minute later Bayern almost increased their lead, however, Robert Lewandowski’s chip over the advancing keeper sailed over the bar.
The Qatar Stars, a side comprising players of various Qatar Stars League teams and hailing from four different continents, after an initial hesitant period regrouped and got their act together and managed to test Bayern keeper Pepe Reina. Qatar Stars striker Harbaoui beat the off side trap but his end effort went wide off the goalpost in the seventh minute.
Thereafter, the current Bundesliga leaders meant business and pressed for the midfield advantage and held sway over it for a major part of the first-half with the local side coming up with the occasional moves.
The visitors increased the lead with a goal initiated by Ribery. The playmaker’s perfect cross found Weiser on the right flank. The striker beat his marker by sheer pace and found enough space to beat the Qatar Stars keeper with an angular left-footed drive.
Coach Pep Guardiola’s boys continued to dominate, sending the local players on a leather hunt and they nearly increased the lead in the 18th minute but Lewandowski’s header off a narrow angle went inches off the far post.
Four minutes later, Lewandowski was again in the thick of the action as his placement off a Ribery pass missed the target.
Qatar celebrated the two quick escapes with a goal much against the run of play.
Spanish midfielder Pablo Hernandez, who plays for Al Arabi, found himself free on the right flank and squared it to the unmarked Harbaoui inside the box. The Tunisian striker of Qatar Sports Club found enough power and elevation to beat Reina with his right footer, much to the delight of the local supporters.
Goaded by a goal, Qatar twice threatened to get the equaliser but on both occasions snap drives from overlapping Egyptian defender Ahmed Fathi of Umm Salal and Hernandez eluded the target.
Ribery, who saw his placement go wide in the 34th minute, found success nine minutes later finishing off a move started by Rode.
Both teams started the second half with a host of substitutions.
Bayern created two early openings but failed to beat substitute goalkeeper Khalifa Ndiaye.
At the other end, substitute Tuncay Sanli’s header went over the bar.
Both coaches, Michael laudrup and Guardiola, continued to make substitutions giving all the players a chance to take the field but could not add to the first-half score.
Finally, substitute Claudio Pizarro added one in the 90th minute, taking advantage of a goal-mouth confusion to slot home a loose ball past Ndiaye.
The Bavarians end their Qatar tour on January 16 and will
play their second friendly of the winter tour against Al Hilal club in Saudi Arabia.
THE PENINSULA
