Bayern’s coach Pep Guardiola has the opportunity to clinch the first international trophy with his new club: the Spaniard’s team beat São Paulo FC 2:0 on Wednesday evening and, in doing so, play in the Audi Cup final, which is held for the third time in the Munich Allianz Arena. The treble winner’s opponent will be Manchester City FC, which beat AC Milan 5:3. The final kicks off on Thursday at 20:30. Milan and the South American guests contest the third-place playoff already at 18:15.
The tournament, which celebrated its premiere on the occasion of the Audi brand’s 100th anniversary in 2009, started with a bang: the spectators savored a football extravaganza with all eight goals being scored in the first 45 minutes of the semi-final between Manchester City FC and AC Milan. The Britons around superstar David Silva prevailed convincingly against the Italians, who also failed to make their way to the final on their third appearance in the Audi Cup.
Afterwards, the spectators watched a dominant performance by FC Bayern München. With only a few days to go before the first competitive match of the new season in the DFB trophy, Bayern clearly controlled play in the match against São Paulo FC, but only took the lead through a goal by Mario Mandžukić in the 55th minute. Youngster Mitchell Weiser settled the game after scoring to make it 2:0.
In addition to Bayern and Manchester, there were two other winners on the first day of play in Munich: a specialist jury of sports journalists and other football experts voted Edin Džeko and Arjen Robben as most valuable players immediately after the final whistle. The rapid and smooth evaluation is made possible by a team from the Audi Institute for Sport Communication under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Josef Hackforth. The students deliver the gathered data of the so-called match reports to the jury and evaluate the voting lists together with two lecturers.
As was the case with the first two tournaments, the final day of the Audi Cup is completely sold out again this year. Information, photos, videos and exclusive insights behind the scenes are also in the internet at www.facebook.com/AudiCup2013.
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