Bayern plus Lyon means Beckenbauer for the majority of loyal Bayern fans. “That’s not football, that’s the Uwe Seeler Old Timers, veterans’ football!” the Kaiser thundered to a cowed team at the banquet following a dismal 3-0 defeat away to Olympique Lyon on 6 March 2001. “That had nothing to do with football. We were playing some other sport.” And there was a bitter parting shot too: “Basically, it’s been a great trip, apart from the match.”
The angry outburst by the then Bayern President dates back some nine years, but it is always a hot topic when FCB meet OL. The latest resumption of rivalries comes on Wednesday, when Germany’s most successful club meet the men who won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles between 2002 and 2008 in the Champions League semi-final first leg. It is the seventh clash between the pair, all of them in Europe’s premier competition, although it is the first knockout encounter.
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