It was an all-round successful start to the new Champions League campaign for FC Bayern as Niko Kovac’s side beat Red Star Belgrade by a commanding 3-0 scoreline at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night. “We can live with the result and also with the way we did it,” said a satisfied coach. For captain Manuel Neuer, the opening win was a warning shot to the competition: “Starting with a clear victory is a good signal to the other teams.”
FCB mustered up 33 shots in total during the 90 minutes against the deep-sitting champions of Serbia. However, the second goal was some time in coming until top scorer Robert Lewandowski released the tension with his predatory instinct in the 80th minute. The goal was yet another milestone for the Poland international, who has now scored 200 in all competitions for FC Bayern. “It was a good game and an impressive performance from us. We can do a few things better, but the important thing is we’ve started with a win,” Lewandowski said after the match.
As soon as the game was over, attentions quickly turned to the next task. “A good opener gives us a lift and momentum for the coming games,” added Thomas Müller, whose goal wrapped up the 3-0 win on his 106th Champions League appearance. He is now Bayern’s record appearance holder in the competition. Kovac also had the next Bundesliga match at home to 1. FC Koln on Saturday in his sights: “Now we need to recover our energy. We need to perform again against Köln in less than 72 hours to get the three points we need.”
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