Forever Bayern !!

Forever FC Bayern !! Mia San Mia 

Manuel Neuer Proud of Just Being on Ballon D'Or Shortlist

​Manuel Neuer says he is just proud to be a Ballon d’Or shortlist as he believes "2014 may have been my best year" of football ever.

The Bayern Munich and Germany keeper told German newspaper 'Süddeutsche Zeitung', as quoted by ​Marca, that his competition, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, are worldwide brands that gives them the upper-hand.

FSV Mainz 1:2 FC Bayern

Despite losing no fewer than ten players to injury and illness, irresistible Bayern completed the second-best ever first half of a season in Bundesliga history with a hard-fought but deserved 2-1 victory in a hugely entertaining contest away to Mainz on Friday, Arjen Robben’s 90th-minute winner ultimately separating the sides. In a streak packed with superlatives, FCB are now unbeaten in 21 league games and have dropped a paltry six points in total this term, conceding a miserly four goals along the way.

The 34,000 capacity crowd at the Coface Arena saw Pep Guardiola’s men endure a torrid opening spell against the energised home team, with Elkin Soto opening for Mainz midway through the first period. But FCB bounced back at once through Bastian Schweinsteiger’s stunning direct free-kick and were the better of two good teams as the frantic action continued through to the interval. The visitors slowly but surely gained the upper hand as the second half wore on, although it seemed destined to end in a draw until Robben’s dramatic last-gasp intervention.

A 14th win in 17 league fixtures takes FCB up to 45 points, a massive 14 clear of chief pursuers Wolfsburg prior to the Wolves’ meeting with Köln on Saturday evening. The Munich stars now go on Christmas leave until 7 January next year, before the mouth-watering prospect of the official Bundesliga restart fixture away to Wolfsburg on Friday 30 January. 

Three enforced changes

Guardiola made three injury-enforced changes to the team that eased to victory over Freiburg on Tuesday, with Jerome Boateng and Schweinsteiger replacing Mehdi Benatia and Xabi Alonso, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in for Robert Lewandowski, although the latter was obviously not a like-for-like swap, with Thomas Müller taking over the central striking duties instead.

Both Sebastian Rode and Xherdan Shaqiri were late withdrawals from the matchday squad with illness, so there were seats on the bench for youngsters Lukas Scholl, Gianluca Gaudino, Sinan Kurt and Mitch Weiser.

The champions lined up with Manuel Neuer in goal, Rafinha, Dante, Boateng and Juan Bernat in defence, Hojbjerg and captain Schweinsteiger in midfield, Franck Ribery and Robben out wide, and Mario Götze tucked in behind Müller at the focal point of the forward line.

Basti cancels out Soto’s opener

Once referee Felix Zwayer set the game in motion on a damp night in the state of Hesse, Kasper Hjulmand’s home team came out with all guns blazing and Pablo de Blasis glanced a fourth-minute header past Neuer from Ja-Cheol Koo’s whipped cross, but the FCB defence had successfully sprung the offside trap. The Reds were given no time to settle by the aggressive home side and nearly a quarter of an hour had gone before Müller saw his team’s first decent chance blocked by Gonzalo Jara.

Robben had the ball in the net on 19 minutes but was left to complain bitterly about a tight offside call, and it got worse for the visitors two minutes later when Japan international Shinji Okazaki found Soto unmarked at the back stick, the Colombia hitman angling a left-foot shot through Neuer’s legs for the opening goal. But the champions were behind for less than three minutes thanks to their captain on the night, as it was Schweinsteiger who curled a perfect free-kick over the Mainz wall, past keeper Loris Karius’ despairing dive and in off the inside of the post.

The sides neutralised each other in the period after the equaliser, before the league leaders took control in the ten minutes leading up to half-time. But Hjulmand’s men remained extremely dangerous on the break and Neuer stood his ground well to pluck Yunus Malli’s attempted lob out of the air in the last incident of the first half. 

Dramatic finale

The teams maintained the frantic pace after the break with Neuer forced into a fine diving save from the charging Malli, but the Bavarians increasingly tightened their grip on proceedings with both Robben and Ribery guiding shots close to the target and Boateng heading too close to Karius. Home skipper Johannes Geis just managed to deflect Hojbjerg’s goalbound piledriver away for a corner, but it took a cool intervention from Bernat to deny De Blasis as the Argentine charged onto a Malli pass.

Claudio Pizarro made his comeback from injury in place of the tiring Götze after 77 minutes, but Mainz were defending in depth now and chances were hard to come by. Müller netted only to be pulled back for a foul, but there was drama in the last minute of normal time when Ribery released Bernat and Robben arrived in the six-yard box to meet the Spaniard’s cross and side-foot the winning goal over the line.

Live match report for fcbayern.de by Chris Hamley

FSV MAINZ 05 - FC BAYERN 1-2 (H-T: 1-1)

FSV Mainz 05	Karius - Brosinski, Wollscheid, Jara, Park - Geis, Soto - De Blasis (Pflücke 81), Malli (Sliskovic 87), Koo (Junior Diaz 79) – Okazaki
Substitute	Kapino, Koch, Roßbach, Allagui
FC Bayern	Neuer - Rafinha, Boateng, Dante, Bernat - Höjbjerg, Schweinsteiger - Robben, Götze (Pizarro 77), Ribéry (Weiser 90+2) – Müller
Substitute	Reina, Zingerle, L. Scholl, Gaudino, Kurt
Referee	Felix Zwayer (Berlin)
Viewers	34,000 (capacity)
Goals	1-0 Soto (21), 1-1 Schweinsteiger (24), 1-2 Robben (90)
Yellow card	Soto, Koo / -

Donetsk task in Champions League last sixteen

Bayern have been handed a tough but manageable first knockout round tie in this season’s Champions League as the 2013 winners and current Bundesliga league leaders were paired with Shakhtar Donetsk in Monday lunchtime’s draw for the last sixteen. The pairing is a ground-breaker, as despite Bayern’s long and illustrious history in European competition they have never previously met the Ukrainian giants.

“Shakhtar Donetsk is a good draw and we’ll certainly be favourites, but we’ll show great respect in both matches. Shakhtar played some very good games in the group stages. It’s definitely going to be a new experience for us,” FCB chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said after the draw.

“We must in no way underestimate this team,” commented board director Andreas Jung, who attended the ceremony in Nyon. “They have the Champions League top scorer Luiz Adriano in their ranks and a few other Brazilians as well.” The Ukrainian winter break has already begun, with Shakhtar only due to resume domestic league competition at the end of February.

First leg in February, return in March

The draw ceremony was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland from midday CET on Monday and was conducted by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, UEFA director of competitions Giorgio Marchetti, and former Germany star Karl-Heinz Riedle as the official ambassador for final venue Berlin. The 16-team line-up featured seven former winners of Europe's elite club competition and 11 of last year's knockout contenders, with a total of four teams from Germany, three from Spain and England, and one each from Italy, Switzerland, France, Ukraine, and Portugal.

As group winners, Bayern play the first leg of the Round of 16 tie away from home. The match would normally be staged at the 52,187 capacity Donbass Arena in Donetsk, although Shakhtar are currently playing their home matches some 1,000 km to the west at the 34,915 capacity Arena Lviv due to security concerns in their home city. The first leg will be played on 17 February, with the return at the Allianz Arena in Munich on 11 March. This year’s final takes place at the Olympic Stadium stadium in Berlin on 6 June 2015.

Champions League first knockout round draw in full:

Paris St Germain v Chelsea

Manchester City v Barcelona

Bayer Leverkusen v Atletico Madrid

Juventus v Borussia Dortmund

Schalke v Real Madrid

Shakhtar Donetsk v Bayern Munich

Arsenal v AS Monaco

Basel v FC Porto

Reaction to FCA v FCB

Four goals in 12 minutes and 55 seconds: FCB exploded into action in the second half of the derby away to FC Augsburg. “We really went for it,” said Robert Lewandowski, scorer of his team’s third goal. Team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger explained: “After we went 1-0 up, Augsburg tried to play a more attacking game. We made good use of the gaps that opened up.”

Reaction to FCA v FCB

Pep Guardiola: “I’m very, very proud, because I know how difficult it is to win here. We were much more aggressive in the second half and our passing was quicker. I’m constantly surprised by the mentality of this group of players who’ve won everything there is to win already. We have two more games and we’ll try and win them both."

Bastian Schweinsteiger: “It wasn’t easy, but we played very well in the second half. There are good reasons why Augsburg are third. They’re very passionate, very aggressive and their first-half tactics were excellent. After we went 1-0 up, Augsburg tried to play a more attacking game. We made good use of the gaps that opened up and went on to score our goals.”

Robert Lewandowski: “We really went for it in the second half and played very well. Four goals in one half is a good performance. The autumn championship means nothing, we have to be first at the end of the season. There are plenty of games still to go.”

Stefan Reuter (FC Augsburg general manager): “We probably needed to be taking one or two of our first-half chances if we wanted to make it more difficult for Bayern. We no longer had a chance in the second half. It was very clear-cut by the end. Bayern are an unbelievable team who play at such high pace.”

Markus Weinzierl (FC Augsburg coach):“Bayern are in a league of their own, we can all agree on that. They have so much quality, so it’s an absolutely deserved win.”

Markus Feulner (FC Augsburg): “Obviously it’s a bitter defeat. We had a few chances of our own, especially in the first half. But you have to take the few chances that come your way, otherwise you’ll never come away with anything from the match.”

Zé Roberto, Daniel van Buyten and Mark van Bommel Singgah Melawat

Even the likes of Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinstiger & Co were taken by surprise when no fewer than three former FCB stars dropped in at the Säbener Strasse facility on Tuesday afternoon. Zé Roberto, Daniel van Buyten and Mark van Bommel watched the current team complete their final pre-match training session on the eve of the Champions League meeting with CSKA Moscow. Van Buyten will receive an official farewell from FCB in front of the Allianz Arena crowd prior to kick-off on Wednesday, but Van Bommel is in Munich for job-related reasons: the 37-year-old is currently working to acquire his advanced coaching certificate and is one of a number of future coaches from the Netherlands holding talks on Tuesday and Wednesday with senior FCB officials including Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Matthias Sammer, Michael Reschke and Hermann Gerland.

Winter training camp in Qatar

For the fifth year in a row FC Bayern will hold their annual winter training camp in Doha, Qatar. Pep Guardiola and his men will fly to the Emirate on 9 January 2015 for a stay at the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence, with its highly-praised and top quality facilities, until 17 January. The training camp will incorporate two friendly matches, on 13 January against a local team, and in a stopover on the return flight on 17 January in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia. The players report back to the Säbener Strasse after the Christmas vacation for the first workout of 2015 at 4 pm on 7 January.

New milestone on Facebook

Thank you! Danke! Gracias! Four and a half years after the inaugural post, FC Bayern’s official Facebook page has passed another significant milestone: the page gained its 25 millionth follower on Tuesday morning, a level of interest unsurpassed by any other German club. The FCB Facebook team has produced a special thank-you video to mark the occasion, recalling a few of the most momentous moments from the last four years.

Play video

Youth League: U-19 aim for third spot

The FC Bayern U-19s are set for their final group stage fixture in this year’s UEFA Youth League. Coach Heiko Vogel’s senior youths face their CSKA Moscow counterparts at 14:30 / 2.30 pm CET on Wednesday at the Grünwald Stadium. Bayern and the Russians are level on three points each and neither can make the next stage, but third place is at stake in Group E. Munich need to make up for a 3-1 defeat in the reverse fixture last September.

Badstuber returns to the Training Ground

Holger Badstuber is back out on the training ground. Some three months after sustaining a ruptured thigh muscle in the Bundesliga meeting with VfB Stuttgart, the centre-back resumed outdoor training on Monday, supervised by fitness coach Holger Broich. The 25-year-old centre-back initially completed 30 minutes of coordination drills and re-acclimatisation with the ball, before going for a 30-minute jog. Badstuber will now continue his sports rehab programme through to the winter break. However, no date has been set for the Germany international to resume the full squad programme.

Benquerença in charge

Olegário Benquerença from Portugal has been appointed referee of Bayern’s sixth and final Champions League group game at home to CSKA Moscow on Wednesday. The 45-year-old match official is no stranger to either team. Benquerença has twice refereed Champions League matches involving FCB: a 3-0 victory over Fiorentina in 2008 and the 2011 meeting with SSC Napoli. The Portuguese has taken charge of games involving the Russian champions three times, with CSKA winning one and drawing the other two. Wednesday’s contest is Benquerença’s 40th match in Europe’s elite club competition.

Quote of the day

“When Sebastian Rode comes on, the grass has to watch itself in case it gets scorched. He’s on fire out there!”
(Thomas Müller on his team-mate Sebastian Rode.)

Manuel Neuer for Ballon d'Or

Tonton Video Ini, dan saksikan kehebatan Manuel Neuer. Sememangnya Manuel Neuer deserves to win Ballon d'Or for this year.

Neuer sememangnya hebat.