Bayern Munich ran riot at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday night as they put Roma to the sword to claim an emphatic 7-1 victory.
Guardiola’s men started as they intended to go on and took the lead within ten minutes thanks to Arjen Robben who went on to add a second for himself. The remainder of the goals came from Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri, while Roma’s consolation came courtesy of Gervinho.
Things started in tense fashion at the Olimpico, with both teams tentatively trying to probe for gaps to exploit any space that became available.
Roma, for the most part, looked solid in the early stages but showed some signs of vulnerability just after the five minute mark as Morgan De Sanctis flopped at a corner and found himself in no man’s land, thankfully for the Giallorossi, Müller was unable to reposition himself to head into the open goal.
It wasn’t long after this initial scare that the deadlock was broken, however. Robben found himself up against ex-teammate Ashley Cole who inexplicably allowed the Dutchman to cut in from the right onto his favoured left foot with great ease before curling the ball into the far corner of De Sanctis’ net.
Gervinho almost levelled the scores immediately after the restart but Manuel Neuer made a good save as the Ivorian forward found himself one on one with the imposing German goalkeeper.
The Bavarian side doubled their lead just after the 20-minute-mark. Götze utilised some step-overs to good effect, before a tidy one-two with Müller 20-yards from goal found the World Cup winner with the space he needed to place the ball into the near corner of De Sanctis’ net, leaving the Roma shot-stopper wrong footed and rooted to the spot.
It didn’t take long before Rudi Garcia’s men found themselves with a three goal deficit to overturn; a cross from the left found Lewandowski free to rise unchallenged above Cole in the six-yard-box to head past the hopeless De Sanctis.
The German champions were looking ruthless by this stage and the goals continued to flow as they added their fourth before the half-hour mark. A beautifully disguised pass from Lewandowski caught Cole completely wrong footed and allowed Robben to race clear of the defence before unleashing a weak shot at goal, which probably should have resulted in a save from the disappointing De Sanctis.
The visitors were awarded a penalty after 35 minutes after Kostas Manolas was perhaps unfairly judged to have deliberately handled in the area. The spot-kick was duly converted by Müller to add a fifth for his side who were proving unstoppable.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first; Bayern looked to dominate early on, focusing a lot of their attacking play through Robben.
Less than ten minutes in to the half, Roma had two chances in quick succession to attempt to scrape some respectability from the result. Gervinho once again bore down on Neuer’s goal and unleashed a vicious strike only to see it cannon back off the upright. Seconds late Florenzi was denied from close range by Neuer who stayed up on his feet for as long as possible to pull off a good save.
Roma found themselves struggling to contain their frustration as Radja Nainggolan and Vasilis Torosidis picked up bookings.
The personal battle between Neuer and Gervinho continued as the latter was once again thwarted by the opposition keeper. A cross from deep found the Ivorian free just yards from goal and Neuer pulled off a remarkable save to keep his clean sheet intact.
Gervinho finally found a way to beat Neuer with just under three quarters of the game played. Roma broke with Alessandro Florenzi who played Nainggolan in on the left, the Belgian fired the ball across goal to find Gervinho and the forward headed the ball beyond Neuer into the Bayern goal.
The introduction of Ribery was a sign the Bayern weren’t quite finished. Within moments the Frenchman found himself through on goal following a sublime pass from Robben and he delicately lifted the ball over De Sanctis to bag a sixth goal for his side.
Mere moments later another substitute got in on the act. Shaqiri profited after De Sanctis fumbled, what seemed to be a relatively easy and tame shot, to allow the Swiss starlet to make it seven goals for the Germans.
