Uli Hoeneß Cup 2013: Bayern beat Barcelona (again)

Bayern Munich beat Barcelona 2-0 on Wednesday to win the 2013 Uli Hoeneß Cup. Philipp Lahm opened the scoring with a header (A HEADER!?!?!?!), and Mario Mandzukic scored in the dying minutes to seal the victory.

Pep continued with his tinkering today, choosing to go with a 4-3-3 that included a defense four of David Alaba, Jerome Boateng, Dante, and Rafinha; a midfield three of Toni Kroos, Thiago Alcantara, and Lahm; and a front three of Franck Ribery, Thomas Müller, and Arjen Robben.

Lionel Messi almost struck first blood just twenty seconds into the match. He intercepted a poor pass in the midfield and then sprinted straight at Dante and Boateng. Luckily for FC Bayern, the shot was well wide of the target. Bayern turned up the intensity and began to increase the pressure on the Barca backline and Jose Manuel Pinto. Kroos and Alaba saw their shots deflected by the wonderfully-braided goalkeeper.

Bayern were rewarded for their early pressing after fifteen minutes. Ribery received a ball out wide on the left and whipped a cross into the box. Lahm, of all people, continued his run right into the center of the penalty area and beat Javier Mascherano to the header. The ball went over the head of Pinto and into the back of the net for the early 1-0 lead.

The transition from offense to defense struggled again throughout the first half. Sergi Roberto should've leveled the score after beating Dante, but his shot was wide of the goal. Christian Tello had the next great opportunity of the match for Barca, but he too went wide. Rafinha would attempt to chest the ball back to Neuer, but his pass struck the post and went out for a corner.

Müller would rattle the crossbar with a shot late in the second half, but the ball would not cross the line. Bayern took their one goal advantage into the break, but the match could have seen two or three additional goals in that first half.

Guardiola introduced Xherdan Shaqiri, Mandzukic, and Tom Starke at the start of the second half for Robben, Müller, and Neuer. Barcelona brought in a complete new eleven for the second half of play.

The last 45 minutes started the same way the first 45 ended with Bayern pressing very high and Barca trying to catch them on a counter. The Catalan side struggled to control Shaqiri as the Swiss attacking constantly ran at their backline causing problems.

Pep kept the second half changes coming for Bayern with Daniel Van Buyten, Luiz Gustavo, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Diego Contento, Emre Can, Claudio Pizarro, and Jan Kirchhoff making second half appearances.

If we're all honest here, the second half was hard to watch. The match completely died after all of the substitutes. Bayern finally made it 2-0 in the 87th minute. Contento found Mandzukic with a low, hard cross, and the Croatian scored one of his patented sliding goals to put the match out of reach.

Bayern have no won all nine of their preseason matches to date along with four trophies. They've outscored their opponents 61-3 in those nine games. Up next? The DFL Supercup on Saturday against Borussia Dortmund.