Arjen Robben is back, and Bayern have kicked off the new year with a win. Those were the most important features of Saturday evening’s 4-0 victory over Qatari champions Lekhwiya SC in the first friendly during the training camp in Doha. A 1,500 crowd saw Thomas Müller open the scoring on 26 minutes, with Daniel van Buyten and Claudio Pizarro (2) netting after the break, second-half sub Robben laying on the fourth goal.
Jupp Heynckes’ starting line-up bore a strong resemblance to the side which could well take the field for the Bundesliga restart fixture at home to Greuther Fürth on 19 January. The boss replaced all ten outfield players at the break, with only keeper Manuel Neuer covering the full 90 minutes. Mario Gomez and Tom Starke sat out the match with minor injuries, and watched from the stands alongside Luiz Gustavo, who has only just returned from injury and was rested after the heavy training burden of recent days.
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