Pune Mirror

By Reuters

Posted On Friday, March 30, 2012

Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben
celebrates after scoring at Marseille

Marseille: Bayern Munich put one foot in the last four of the Champions League with a clinical victory in Marseille on Wednesday but five yellow cards and a suspension for Bastian Schweinsteiger left coach Jupp Heynckes fuming.

Dutch winger Arjen Robben shone on a bright night for Bayern at the Stade Velodrome and a 2-0 victory put them firmly on course for a semi-final meeting with Real Madrid, who won 3-0 at APOEL Nicosia in their quarter-final, first leg on Tuesday.

Heynckes naturally refused to accept that his team were as good as through but his concern that seven of his players were a booking away from suspension indicated that he had half an eye on a meeting with the nine-times European champions.

Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, David Alaba and Anatolyi Tymoshuk joined Jerome Boateng and Thomas Mueller on a list of players who would miss a game if they receive another yellow, while Schweinsteiger will be suspended for the return leg.

“I’m happy with the game but I’m not with the five yellow cards we received. That’s too many,” Heynckes told reporters. “I’m particularly unhappy with the one Schweinsteiger was shown. Bastian is back from injury and he needs to play,” he added. “He could have spent time on the pitch in the return leg as he needs to play. I talked to him, he knows there was no use being booked like that.”

There were few other grounds for complaint for the Germans, particularly with Robben’s oustanding performance in setting up the first goal and scoring the second.

His fellow forward Franck Ribery was not at his best, however, and was possibly affected by the boos which rained down on him from the terraces all night. “I am very happy we won here, away,” Ribery, who left Marseille for Munich in 2007, said. “It’s never easy to come back but I can understand.”