Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Monday, 23 December 2013 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Morocco came to a standstill, an army of Raja fans travelled 250km to the game and King Mohamed was among the 37,000 crowd only for party-pooping Bayern to wrap it up under half an hour.
Defender Dante and midfielder Thiago Alcantara scored the goals on a chilly evening as Bayern added to the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup titles they won last season and continued European dominance of the tournament.
European teams have won six of the last seven titles, with Brazilian side Corinthians interrupting the sequence last year, and Saturday’s stroll may reinforce the view that it is little more than a pleasant excursion for them before the winter break.
Bayern scored five goals without conceding any in their two games as they added to the two Intercontinental Cup titles they won in 1976 and 2001. They emulated Manchester United, in 1999, and Inter Milan, in 2010, by winning a league, cup, Champions League and world club quadruple in the same year.
Raja, who changed coaches one week before the start of the tournament, had qualified as champions of host nation Morocco rather than of Africa and had already stunned the CONCACAF representatives Monterrey and South America’s Atletico Mineiro.
But a powerful Bayern team, unbeaten in the Bundesliga since October last year, proved a bridge too far for a side who are a modest ninth in their own league.
NERVOUS HOSTS
“They were a little bit nervous because of the crowd, and the presence of his majesty the King,” Raja coach Faouzi Benzarti told reporters. “We were not very aggressive, we were a bit soft.” Benzarti said he was already preparing his players for the less glamorous world of the Moroccan Botola Pro league. “It will be difficult but we have to return to reality,” he said. “We will do everything we can for them to be prepared. This competition will be here again next year, so we have to win the title to qualify again.”
