Below-strength FCB undone by wily Italians

After losing the inaugural Franz Beckenbauer Cup clash to Barcelona last year, Bayern again missed out on the trophy by the only goal of the game as disciplined Italian champions Inter edged a match long on intensity but short of highlights.

A 64,000 crowd flocked to the Allianz Arena for the official season opener against the Milan giants, although the first half was a subdued affair as the sides struggled with a patent lack of rhythm. Brazilian midfielder Mancini handed the visitors a 52nd-minute lead off the bar, the post and Daniel van Buyten, and although Bayern upped the tempo after that, the home side lacked the guile to break down the focused and supremely well-organised Nerazzurri defence.

Experimental FCB

Klinsmann was already without Franck Ribéry, Luca Toni, Tim Borowski and Willy Sagnol through injury, and was forced into another late rethink when summer flu victim Bastian Schweinsteiger withdrew before kick-off.

The FCB boss opted for the 3-5-2 formation seen a couple of times in pre-season, with Lucio, Martin Demichelis and Daniel van Buyten as a trio of centre-halves, Christian Lell and Philipp Lahm at wing back, captain Mark van Bommel anchoring the midfield, and Ze Roberto and Hamit Altintop supporting the front two of Miro Klose and Lukas Podolski.

New Inter supremo Jose Mourinho was missing Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Walter Samuel, Ivan Cordoba and Cristian Chivum, but still sent out a star-studded side including the likes of long-serving skipper Javier Zanetti, Brazil hitman Adriano, 2001 World Player of the Year Luis Figo and keeper Francesco Toldo, the sole Italian in the starting eleven.

Micho forced off

The home side made the brighter opening, although Lucio headed wide and Van Bommel’s shot was wayward, before new FCB number one Michael Rensing got down well to Adriano’s stinging free-kick.

Toldo saved comfortably from Lahm and Altintop whistled a drive past the upright as the Germans continued to set the pace, but Klinsmann was forced into another change of formation midway through the first half when Demichelis limped off following a collision with Adriano.

Young Toni Kroos came into midfield with Lell reverting to a conventional right-back role, but the switch to 4-4-2 threw Bayern out of their stride and the Italians were content to rely on their disciplined defence as the game meandered to the interval, half-chances at either end for Lahm and Mancini the only incidents worthy of note.

Mancini’s winner

The visitors took the lead seven minutes after half-time when Figo dispossessed Ze Roberto and fed Mancini down the inside-left channel. The new signing from AS Roma fired across Rensing, the ball striking the bar and the far post before finally crossing the line with a minimum of assistance from the off-balance Van Buyten.

Munich played with a great deal more urgency now, aided by the introduction of fresh legs in the shape of Andi Ottl and Marcell Jansen, but Inter’s classy rearguard restricted the home side to long-range efforts, Toldo saving excellently from Kroos and Van Bommel hoisting his shot over the bar.

Reserve striker Thomas Müller came on for a rare taste of the big time with 15 minutes remaining, but Toldo acrobatically dealt with Jansen’s curler, and then produced an even better save to deny Kroos once again. Podolski was a fraction offside as he sought to send the match to penalties as the Italians more or less comfortably held on to claim the prestige trophy.

Live match report for fcbayern.de by Chris Hamley