Bayern Munich started scoring goals early and didn't stop as they completely hammered AS Roma 7-1 on Tuesday in Rome. The scoreline is the greatest ever away win by the German club in the Champions League.
3 things we learned from Bayern Munich’s 7-1 demolition of AS Roma
Bayern Munich absolutely embarrassed Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.
Alexander Hassenstein
Roma may have had the better start to the match, but it was Bayern who struck first after just eight minutes. Arjen Robben jogged into the Roma box, using a couple stutter steps to freeze two Roma defenders before curling a shot between them and past Morgan De Sanctis.
Both goalkeepers were called upon in the minutes following the goal, with Manuel Neuer making a highlight-reel denial of Gervinho after the striker's shot took a slight deflection off David Alaba on its way toward goal. Neuer was quick as a cat and poked the ball away with his hand.
Once again, when Roma seemed to be getting into the match, their defense was picked apart by Bayern. In the 24th minute. Mario Götze ran onto a ball that was cleverly hit into his path by Thomas Müller, firing it past De Sanctis and extending Bayern’s lead to 2-0.
UEFA Champions League
Less than two minutes later Robert Lewandowski got into the act and scored Bayern's third goal of the match. Lewa cut in behind Yanga-Mbwia, who had no idea where the Bayern striker was, to head Juan Bernat's cross past a helpless De Sanctis.
A fourth goal? Sure, why not. in the 20th minute Robben ran right past Ashley Cole, onto Lewandowski's pass to drive past De Sanctis.
And it got worse.
Bayern earned a penalty in the 35th minute after Kostas Manolas was harshly adjudged to have committed a handball in the box. Müller stopped up and scored the Bavarians’ fifth goal of the match.
Even when Roma did things right, it went wrong for them. For example, in the 61st minute Gervinho snuck past the Bayern back line and received a free kick near the far post. He one-touched the ball as it came down, but Neuer was on top of it, blocking the shot from point-blank range.
A goal finally did come for the home side in the 66th minute though, when Gervinho headed the ball past Neuer from short range to make it 5-1.
Bayern added two more goals in the final minutes of the match, from Franck Ribéry and Xherdan Shaqiri, because why not?
Roma: De Sanctis, Cole (Holebas 46’), Manolas, Yanga-Mbiwa, Torosidis, Pjanić (Ljajic 79’), De Rossi, Nainggolan, Gervinho, Totti (Florenzi 46’), Iturbe
Goals: Gervinho (66’)
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Alba, Benatia, Boateng, Bernat, Lahm, Alonso, Götze (Shaqiri 79’), Müller (Rafinha 60’), Robben, Lewandowski (Ribéry 68’)
Goals: Robben (8’, 30’), Götze (23’), Lewandowski (25’), Müller (36’), Ribéry (78), Shaqiri (80’)
3 things
1. AS Roma are not this bad - Roma is not a bad team, in fact, they’re one of the better teams in Italy. Bayern Munich made them look like a Sunday pub side, slicing through their defense like it wasn’t there and scoring goals for fun. While some may use this as a way to criticize Roma and Serie A in general, it’s more a testament to the incredible skill of Bayern.
2. Bayern Munich are absurdly good - It’s almost not fair how good Bayern are. They’ve got more weapons than a zombie hunter and are as versatile as a full loaded Swiss Army knife. At this rate we’re gonna run out of ways to describe how good this team is.
3. We didn’t really learn that much honestly - We already knew that Bayern were really good, but I don’t think AS Roma are this bad. Call it a combination of a bad day for the Italians and the Germans being amazing.
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