A late cameo performance from Mario Gomez was not enough for Bayern Munich, whose UEFA Champions League campaign ended in a 2-0 defeat by Inter Milan on Saturday.
Gomez replaced fellow forward Ivica Olic with 16 minutes remaining in European football’s flagship tournament at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu, but with Bayern trailing to two Diego Milito goals, it proved a bridge too far for the Bundesliga side.
Both teams were chasing a unique treble, having already collected their domestic league and cup trophies and it was a strike in each half from Milito that handed Inter their first European Cup since 1965.
While Bayern dominated possession for large parts of the match, they were stunned by two clinical counter attacking goals, the first coming after 35 minutes when Milito, who also scored the decisive goals in both the Italian league and cup for Inter, broke through the Bayern defence with the aid of Wesley Sneijder and finished calmly.
Bayern came close to equalising through Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben, but as they pressed for the leveler, Samuel Eto’o released Milito again and the Argentina international turned Daniel Van Buyten and slotted the ball past Jörg Butt with 20 minutes remaining.
There was no way back for Bayern after that and coach Louis van Gaal admitted that the match was decided the way he had feared.
“It was no surprise to me how the match went,” van Gaal said. “The surprise is we lost. We knew they would play like that. We knew they would be very well organised defensively.
“We knew Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder could be decisive and that's how it went. We didn't create as many chances as usual. We had chances, but if you don't score you lose. The Müller chance in the second half would have made it a different game.”
And a disappointed Müller concurred with his manager’s view of the match.
“They were just more clinical in attack,” the 20-year-old striker said. “I think it was us not playing our game as we wanted to play.
“Inter, of course, were very compact at the back but we knew that, and they were just more clinical in attack. The disappointment is huge at the moment."
Catch up with all the reaction to the Champions League final at uefa.com
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