Bayern Munich vs. Roma: Final score 2-0, Bavarians cruise to victory

As expected, after such a dreadful 7-1 defeat last time around, Roma engaged in damage limitation in Munich. Either that, or they’re just saving all their energy for the weekend’s highly contested match against Torino. Rudi Garcia certainly decided to save his best players, resting Francesco Totti, Miralem Pjanic, Gervinho, and even first-choice goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis. Whatever the reason, Roma spent the majority of the first half defending in numbers, getting in just two shots the entire 45 minutes.

That made for a rather dull affair. For the first 30 minutes, the only event of note was Radja Nainggolan appealing for a penalty after being knocked aside in the box. Had he been successful, things just might have gotten interesting.

Instead it was Bayern, of course, that took the lead, 38 minutes in. Bayern broke quickly, with David Alaba racing up the left. He pulled back to send the ball across the face of goal, leaving Franck Ribery with nothing else to do except nudge it on past Lukasz Skorupski.

A glimmer of hope shone down when Pjanic replaced the injured Alessandro Florenzi for the final 30 minutes. Yet even with a bit more creativity in the side, Roma still couldn’t get a look at goal. Once again, it was up to Bayern to create any sort of excitement.

This time it came via a goal from fresh-faced Mario Götze. The golden boy latched on to a ball from Robert Lewandowski, who had absolutely no trouble making Vasilis Torosidis look silly. Götze seemed to balance the ball on the big toe of his right foot, before blooping it over Shorupski and into the back of the net.

What did seem to finally nudge Roma awake was the introduction of Gervinho, with fifteen minutes to go. He certainly livened things up, but Manuel Neuer didn’t want to play nice. The goalkeeper used his leg to block a great attempt from the Ivorian, only to turn and deny an immediate response from Nainggolan.

goals: Franck Ribery 38’; Götze 58’