Gomez helps Bayern complete job against Zürich
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
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FC Zürich 0-1 FC Bayern München (agg: 0-3)
Two to the good from the first leg, Bayern's path to the group stage rarely looked in doubt after Mario Gomez's early goal.
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FC Bayern München cruised into the UEFA Champions League group stage after wrapping up a 3-0 aggregate triumph over FC Zürich in the play-offs.
Already two to the good from last week's home leg, Bayern's progress rarely looked in doubt once Mario Gomez put them 1-0 up in Switzerland after seven minutes. The four-time European champions can now look forward to discovering their group stage opponents in Thursday's draw.
It was Zürich who needed the early goal in front of their noisy support and they almost got it five minutes in when Jorge Teixeira and Amine Chermiti combined neatly, only for the latter to shoot wide. The hosts were soon silenced, though, when a speedy Bayern counterattack resulted in Thomas Müller squaring for Gomez to finish past Johnny Leoni.
With Bayern starting to assert their authority, Müller nearly twisted the knife four minutes later when he powered into the penalty area on the right but shot wide of Leoni's left-hand post. Though Urs Fischer's side were making their task harder with a degree of carelessness in possession, they nevertheless carved out opportunities of their own.
Manuel Neuer acrobatically clawed away Philippe Koch's dangerous cross and again kept Zürich at bay midway through the first half by punching out Ricardo Rodriguez's whipped free-kick. Jérôme Boateng also had to be alert to clear the danger after Dušan Djurić's set piece came off Silvan Aegerter eight minutes before the break.
Bayern had the chance to extinguish any hope Zürich had of coming back late in the first half, Gomez denied by Leoni after fine work from Franck Ribéry and Toni Kroos. The Germany striker should have doubled his tally from the resulting corner but put his header over.
Still seeking a breakthrough, Zürich started the second half brightly but had only Admir Mehmedi's wayward effort to show for their early endeavours. It was subsequently Jupp Heynckes' visitors who created the clearer openings, substitute Nils Petersen and the impressive Ribéry denied to prevent the German giants adding further gloss to a job well done.
