Budapest: Bayern Munich beat Sevilla 2-1 after extra time Thursday to lift the UEFA Super Cup. With the win Bayern Munich completed a quadruple under coach Hansi Flick. Incidentally this was the first European game played with fans in the stands since the sport returned amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Substitute Javi Martinez headed in the winner for Bayern Munich in the 104th minute. Europa League winners Sevilla had taken a 13th-minute lead through Lucas Ocampos’s penalty and Bayern levelled through Leon Goretzka in the 34th.
The Bavarians are unbeaten now in 32 consecutive matches. They have also won the domestic league and Cup double as well as the Champions League. The successes have come after Flick took over last November. Bayern’s last defeat dates back to December, 2019.
Bayern were the better side throughout. The match would not have gone into extra time if Robert Lewandowski, Benjamin Pavard and Thomas Mueller utilized the chances that came their way.
Yet it was Bayern keeper Neuer who kept them in the game first with a one-on-one save against Youssef En-Nesyri to send the game to extra time. He then made another brilliant save from the same Sevilla player two minutes into extra time.
The Spaniards gradually ran out of steam, however, and it was only a matter of time until Bayern scored again.
Martinez is reportedly close to agreeing to a return to Athletic Bilbao this season. He had come on five minutes earlier and benefited from being given too much space to head in on the rebound. The Spaniard had also scored in extra time in Bayern’s only previous Super Cup win in 2013.
Some 15,000 fans were seated in the Puskas Arena here with the game seen as a test event for the gradual return of fans to European games.
The match was held amid a growing second wave of COVID-19, with Hungarian cases at record highs, which had prompted warnings of the possible consequences of mass gatherings such as this game.