Cypriot champions Pafos FC were hammered 5-1 by German juggernaut Bayern Munich in their first ever Champions League home match at the Alphamega Stadium in Limassol on Tuesday night.
While the result was, in the end, a formality, there were some early jitters from the visitors, who looked somewhat perturbed by the screams, whistles, and boos aimed in their direction by the thousands of Paphites who were packed in to a sold out arena.
A flurry of misplaced passes early on saw the hosts able to make inroads into Bayern’s half and even muster the first shot of the game when Brazilian midfielder Pepe half-volleyed over Manuel Neuer’s crossbar five minutes into the tie.
However, once the away side managed to settle themselves, the result was never in doubt.
Luis Diaz was the first to find his rhythm, forcing Pafos goalkeeper Neofytos Michael into a low save to his left after cutting in from the left wing, and Harry Kane almost gave Bayern the lead soon after with an audacious bicycle kick from a Michael Olise corner which had Michael flailing and hit the post before being cleared.
From there, Bayern turned the screw, seldom allowing their hosts out of their own half, and it was Kane who gave them the lead before a quarter of an hour had been played, latching onto a defence-splitting pass from Olise before firing the ball across Michael and into the bottom left-hand corner.
Five minutes later, their lead was doubled, with Raphael Guerreiro bombing forward from left back, playing a one-two with Nicolas Jackson, to find himself one-on-one with Michael, and then neatly lifting the ball over him and into the net.
It was three on the half-hour mark when Michael Olise danced into the Pafos FC penalty box before teeing up Jackson to pass the ball beyond Michael and bag his first goal for Bayern, after joining on loan from Chelsea in August.
Seconds later, Olise attempted to go it alone, but when his shot cannoned off one of Pafos FC’s covering defenders, Bayern were left exposed at the other end, allowing Jaja to race past Dayot Upamecano on a driving run up the park which resulted in a shot and a Manuel Neuer save.
However, once Bayern had regained possession, they did not relinquish it until Harry Kane had beaten three players and lashed the ball past Michael to put his side four goals to the good.
Throughout the first half, Pafos FC found themselves unable to live with Bayern’s two wingers, Luis Diaz, and in particular Michael Olise, who teased and toyed with the hosts’ backline whenever he had the ball at his feet.
Diaz nearly added a fifth in the half’s final minute, meeting a through ball but being kept at bay by a save from Michael.
The home fans were given something to cheer with the final kick of the half, when Croatian winer Mislav Orsic capitalised on a misplaced pass in Bayern’s half and thundered the ball into the top corner of Manuel Neuer’s net from 30 yards out, leaving Neuer rooted to the spot as it flew past him, and leaving the score at 4-1 at half time.
The goal seemed to buoy Pafos FC even after the interval, with the hosts finding themselves in Bayern’s penalty box within seconds of the restart.
On that occasion, a comical dive from Orsic was met with appeals from the Paphites in the stands, but even their best efforts failed to convince Lithuanian referee Manfredas Lukjancukas, who gave Orsic a yellow card for his troubles.
Bayern’s threat was blunted by the departure of Luis Diaz, who was replaced by Serge Gnabry at half time with the match won already, while the 10 starters who remained on the pitch had largely take their collective foot off the gas in the second half.
The goals were not quite done yet, however, with Nicolas Jackson racing through on goal and having his effort beaten away by Neofytos Michael, only for Michael Olise to pounce on the rebound and finally get the goal his first half performance deserved, with 20 minutes remaining.
From there on in, the game largely petered out, with a few half-chances at either end and a number of wayward long shots from optimistic Bayern players, before the visitors hit the post twice in the dying seconds with their final attempts to up the score even further.
While a sixth goal proved elusive for the away side, they nonetheless provided their hosts a footballing lesson and a baptism of fire in the sport’s elite competition.
They will next travel to Larnaca to face Aek on Sunday, with their next Champions League outing coming on October 21 away at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty, who were themselves dealt a 5-0 shellacking by Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
For Bayern, Tuesday was a ninth win in a row in all competitions. They will have the opportunity to extend their run to double figures with a trip to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, before they will aim to continue their perfect start to this year’s Champions League when they play Belgium’s Club Brugge on October 22.
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