A spectator ran onto the pitch and hit Franck Ribery with a scarf in stoppage-time of Bayern Munich’s 3-1 victory at Hamburg SV in the second round of the DFB Pokal, or German Cup, on Wednesday.
The man ran the width of the field before hitting the France winger after he had secured victory for the Cup holders. The intruder also made insulting gestures before being caught by guards and escorted from the pitch.
“Fortunately, nothing much happened,” a relaxed and smiling Ribery told German television after the match. “It was a difficult situation, I didn’t see him coming.”
Photo: Reuters
Hamburg later apologized to Bayern and Ribery, who was booed by the home fans every time he touched the ball.
“We apologize for the scene shortly before the end. That’s not HSV,” the club said.
Bayern, who take on Borussia Dortmund tomorrow in the Bundesliga and face AS Roma in the UEFA Champions League next week, got off to a dream start on Wednesday when forward Robert Lewandowski fired in on the rebound after a Heiko Westermann mistake had set up the hosts’ lead in the seventh minute.
Die Roten, undefeated in the Bundesliga as well as the Champions League, then struck just before the break after an earlier effort had been ruled off-side.
Austria international David Alaba found space outside the box and rifled in a long-range effort that took goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny by surprise on the stroke of halftime.
Ribery, back in the starting lineup after a lengthy injury break, killed off any lingering comeback hopes from Hamburg after his deflected shot beat Drobny in the 55th.
Die Rothosen managed a late consolation goal via Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s header at the far post on a deft chip from Rafael van der Vaart.
Fellow Champions League club Bayer 04 Leverkusen had a far more adventurous evening after needing penalties to edge past fourth-tier side Magdeburg 5-4.
What had looked like an easy task when in-form Hakan Calhanoglu put Leverkusen ahead after just three minutes turned out to be a thriller, with the hosts leveling and taking the lead in extra-time.
Leverkusen, who had South Korean Son Heung-min sent off with a straight red card for a foul, needed a 116th-minute equalizer through Kyriakos Papadopoulos to take the game to penalties, where they kept their cool as goalkeeper Bernd Leno saved three shots.
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