Kahn the hero as Bayern lift European Cup

Mike Collett

Bayern Munich eased the pain they have carried around for the last two years by beating Valencia 5-4 on penalties after a European Cup final that finished 1-1 after extra time at the San Siro stadium on Wednesday.

The Germans, who conceded two goals in injury-time to lose the 1999 final 2-1 to Manchester United, triumphed over Valencia after a match that promised so much and started so brightly ended in a tepid 1-1 draw after extra time failed to produce a golden goal winner.

The victory was a triumph for coach Ottmar Hitzfeld who becomes only the second man to win European club soccer's ultimate prize with two different clubs, following his earlier success with Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

He emulates the achievement of Ernst Happel, the coach when Feyenoord won in 1970 and when Hamburg were victorious in 1983.

Bayern's hero on the night was goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, one of six players in the same side beaten two years ago.

He made three memorable saves in the shoot-out -- including the decisive one from Valencia defender Mauricio Pellegrino.

Kahn also stopped a penalty by Zlatko Zahovic and made an astonishing save when he sent Amedeo Carboni's spot-kick crashing onto the bar.

He was engulfed by his team mates at the end as the Valencia players sank to the turf in abject dejection for the second time in 12 months.

The Spaniards were beaten finalists for the second successive season after losing 3-0 to Real Madrid in Paris a year ago and there was no consoling Pellegrino, one of their better players during the match, six of whom also lost against Real last year.

But for Bayern, justice was just about deserved. Having beaten the last two European champions -- Manchester United and Real Madrid -- home and away in the knockout stages of the competition, Bayern were undoubtedly the better team on the night.

They had to come from behind in normal time and the shootout to lift the European Cup for the fourth time in their history, and for the first time since their hat trick of wins between 1974 and 1976.

Having won the German title with almost the last kick of the domestic season last Saturday, they also repeated their league and European Cup double of 1974.

FIGHTBACK
But they did it the hard way, finding themselves a goal down after only three minutes when Dutch referee Dick Jol ruled that Patrick Andersson had handled a shot from Valencia skipper Gaizko Mendieta despite being on the ground at the time.

Mendieta stepped forward to take the penalty himself and give his side an early 1-0 advantage.

Bayern wasted a golden opportunity to equalise three minutes later when Jocelyn Angloma sent Bayern skipper Stefan Effenberg crashing in the box.

Mehmet Scholl, with five Champions League goals this season, failed to add to that total as Santiago Canizares saved his penalty with his legs, sending the ball high over the bar for a corner.

Despite some attractive midfield play from both sides in the opening period, few scoring chances were created.

John Carew, whose cross had led to Valencia's early penalty, should have done better with a header wide, while Scholl went close with a header just over the bar at the end of the half.

Hasan Salihamidzic created a series of chances on the left for Bayern in the opening 45 minutes, continually getting the better of Carboni out wide.

But he was pulled back into a deeper role after the break as coach Hitzfeld replaced defender Willy Sagnol with Carsten Jancker and played three at the back as Bayern drove forward for the equaliser.

ANOTHER PENALTY
It duly came after 51 minutes when Carboni handled a cross from Bayern's Brazilian forward Giovane Elber and Jol awarded the third penalty of the match. Unlike Scholl, Effenberg made no mistake from the spot.

With Effenberg a tireless worker linking defence and attack and England Under-21 international Owen Hargreaves having more and more impact as the game wore on, Bayern took advantage of the tiring Mendieta and the largely ineffective Juan Sanchez to dominate the midfield.

But despite some more passing movements and intelligent runs off the ball which delighted the purists, neither team created another real scoring chance until Valencia substitute Zahovic found himself with only Kahn to beat six minutes from time.

A poor first touch saw the opportunity lost and although Zahovic had another half-chance after 87 minutes, the game went into extra time.

Chances fell to both sides without a winner looking likely and ultimately it was down to penalties.

BAD START
Bayern made a bad start when Paulo Sergio blasted his kick high over the bar and Mendieta sent Kahn the wrong way to put Valencia 1-0 ahead.

Salihamidzic, Carew and Alexander Zickler all converted their penalties before Zahovic saw his effort saved by Kahn to leave the shoot-out score 2-2 after three rounds.

Andersson, who took a very long run up, seemed to be exhausted by the time he got to the ball and missed, before Kahn brilliantly saved Carboni's effort.

Effenberg and Ruben Baraja then scored to make it 3-3 before Bixente Lizarazu and Kily Gonzalez followed up.

Thomas Linke put Bayern 5-4 ahead before Kahn made one final save from Pellegrino to seal victory and send the 40,000 Bayern fans in the stadium into ecstasy.

Valencia's Argentinian coach Hector Cuper could not bear to watch and turned away as Pellegrino began his run-up.

He must have known what was coming. Cuper has now lost three successive European finals in three years -- his Real Mallorca team were beaten in the 1999 European Cup Winners' Cup final and Valencia have now gone down in the last two European Cup finals.

It was the fourth successive European Cup final to be played in Italy to end in a draw following those played in 1984, 1991 and 1996.

Valencia also became only the second team after Juventus (1997 and 1998) to lose two successive finals in the competition's 46-year history.

But as a huge banner unveiled by the German fans read at the start: "Tonight is a good night to write history", and for Bayern Wednesday's victory is the only history that will count for a while yet.