(Sporting Alert) — Former Barcelona and Netherland striker Patrick Kluivert believes Bayern Munich holds the upper hand in their Champions League second round tie with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Bastian Schweinsteiger in action for Bayern Munich in Ukraine.
A ten-man Bayern Munich side played to a 0-0 draw on the road at Donbass Arena, but never really looked like troubling the hosts.
In fact, despite hogging up 63.6 percent of the possessions and dominated with 656 passes, the German champions only managed shot on goal.
Kluivert admits that the result was disappointing for the travelers, but he added that Pep Guardiola’s men have enough about them to take care of business at Allianz Arena in the second leg.
He picked the Bundesliga side to win 2-0 at home in the return fixture.
“For Bayern… disappointed result, but at home they will finish the game,” Kluivert wrote on his official Twitter Account.
Bayern was forced to play the final 25 minutes of Tuesday night Champions League contest with 10 players after holding midfielder Xabi Alonso was sent off in the 65th minute.
The former Real Madrid star picked up his second yellow card for bring down Alex Teixeira in what was his 100th Champions League appearance.
Interestingly, it was the same player Alonso committed his first foul on for his first yellow of the game.
Bayern Munich had several close chances to score in the game, but the likes of Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller all failed to capitalized on half chances in Ukraine.
Guardiola, who started the game without an out-and-out center forward brought on Robert Lewandowski in the final 15 minutes for Mario Gotze in his search for a late, but the change wasn’t successful, as Shakhtar Donetsk played very organized at the back.
The match was played several hundred miles from Shakhtar home field due to issues in the country.
Meanwhile, Chelsea and Paris St Germain played to a 1-1 draw in the day’s second last round of 16 game in Paris.
Branislav Ivanovic put Chelsea ahead in the 36th minute, but poor defending in the second half between Gary Cahill and John Terry saw striker Edinson Cavani sneaking in to head home the equalizer in the 54th minute.
Jose Mourinho was disappointed with conceding an equalizer, but admits that he was happy with the result and the away goal.
“I am happy with result,” he said. “In the second half PSG was stronger than.
“We didn’t create in the second half and we didn’t control the game in the second half like we did in the first half.”
