Alaba scores, James turns provider, no luck for Lewy

Friday evening saw several Bayern players in action for their countries. fcbayern.com rounds up the fixtures

Alaba scores from a free-kick

It was a great start to the 2018 international campaign for David Alaba. The 25-year-old helped Austria to a 3-0 victory over Slovenia in Klagenfurt with a goal. Playing in midfield, the Munich maestro flicked a free-kick over the wall and into the net to open the scoring in the 15th minute. Marko Arnautovic rounded off the win with a brace, scored either side of the break. Just before half-time, Alaba almost bagged a second from another free-kick, which just missed the target. It was a good start to the year for the Austrians, who failed to qualify for the World Cup.

James & Co. turn it around

With James Rodríguez leading the charge, Colombia turned a two-goal deficit against France into a 3-2 victory. Olivier Giroud und Thomas Lemar put the French ahead early on, but the South Americans refused to give up and after some great build-up play from James, Luis Muriel pulled one back before the break. In the second half, the Munich man turned provider with a textbook pass for Falcao to equalise. Towards the end of the match, Juan Quintero came on for James and scored the winner with an 85th minute spot-kick. Corentin Tolisso was in the French squad but remained on the bench.

Defeat for Lewandowski

Meanwhile, Robert Lewandowski made a poor start to his World Cup year. Poland and their FC Bayern superstar lost 1-0 to Nigeria in Wrocław. Despite dominating the game, the home side fell to a Victor Moses penalty in the 61st minute. Polish captain Lewandowski was involved in nearly all his team’s attacks, hitting the post early on in the match and forcing a save from the Colombian keeper in the second half, before being subbed off in the 67th minute.