Star signing Robert Lewandowski scored on his first appearance in a Bayern shirt as Pep Guardiola’s experimental team drew their second friendly of pre-season 1-1 away to third division MSV Duisburg on Monday. The 24,126 crowd at the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena in the Ruhr Valley saw Lewandowski and Fabian Schnellhardt trade second-half goals in a good-quality warm-up clash, as the Bavarians continued their long-established practice of lending a helping hand when once-famous clubs fall on hard times. "If you know Bayern Munich, you know they’re prepared to assist clubs with financial problems,” Duisburg’s grateful sporting director Ivica Grlic commented.
Just as in last Friday’s Dream Game in Memmingen Guardiola started with a three-man back line, this time featuring fit-again Diego Contento, Rafinha and captain for the night Holger Badstuber. The line-up included Juan Bernat on the left, David Alaba in the holding role, starlets-with-famous-fathers Lukas Scholl and Gianluca Gaudino in the centre, and Lewandowski at centre-forward. The home players, boasting over 350 second division appearances between them, are only a week away from their first league outing of the new term and promised to pose a stern test for the visitors at this early stage of pre-season.
Goal apiece after half-time
After referee Martin Thomsen whistled the match underway, FCB were soon on the attack but home keeper Michael Ratajczak saved well from Gaudino and brilliantly from Lewandowski after eight minutes. Alex Sieghart, promoted to FCB II from the U-19 youths for this season, shot too close to the keeper after a quarter-hour, but there was a let-off for the visitors when Zlatko Janjic steered wide of an open goal from MSV’s first meaningful foray.
The muscular and well-organised home team kept a lid on Munich’s attacking efforts for a long spell and restricted FCB to a single chance before half-time when Lewandowski spooned Contento’s centre over the bar. Duisburg began the second half brightly with Christopher Schorch heading wide and Starke saving expertly from Janjic, but the flow suffered for a time as both sides made substitutions, home coach Gino Lettieri swapping out almost his entire team in the course of the second period.
The visitors picked up the pace on the hour and claimed a deserved lead after 62 minutes when Lewandowski burst onto Rafinha’s chip and took a touch to control before slotting past second-half MSV keeper Marcel Lenz. The Poland striker hit the side-netting shortly afterwards, but the home side levelled with 20 minutes left when sub Schnellhardt drilled home left-footed from 20 yards. FCB youth and half-time sub Michael Eberlein missed a golden opportunity to restore his side’s lead but dallied with only Lenz to beat, before Lewandowski and Badstuber accepted the crowd’s warm applause when the pair departed the action with four minutes to go.
Live match report for fcbayern.de by Chris Hamley
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