Pizarro heads Bayern to Cup glory

A Claudio Pizarro goal helped FC Bayern München retain the German Cup with a comfortable 1-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening.

Worthy winners
The German champions were deserving of their thirteenth Cup victory after Peruvian international Claudio Pizarro capped a dominant performance from the tournament favourites with the only goal of the match in the second half. Felix Magath’s side began the game brightly and almost took the lead on the quarter-hour mark when Roy Makaay’s shot was blocked by Christoph Spycher. The Dutchman had another chance to score just after half an hour of play but headed Willy Sagnol’s cross wide of goal – a mistake that was almost punished by Benjamin Köhler, whose close-range effort was well saved by Oliver Kahn.

Goalkeeping heroics
Shortly after the break Frankfurt goalkeeper Oka Nikolov matched his opposite number with a fine save from Michael Ballack’s header. Nikolov was called upon to turn another shot from Makaay wide as the Bavarian side piled on the pressure and on a busy afternoon he also saved a fierce shot from the edge of the area from Owen Hargreaves. By then, though, Bayern had already broken the deadlock when Pizarro headed in Zé Roberto’s 59th-minute corner. Hard though they tried, Bayern could not convert their superiority into further goals and, at the death, had Kahn to thank for making a brilliant save to deny Ioannis Amanatidis from scoring an unlikely equaliser.