Bayern Munich Advancing To Champions League Final

When the final whistle blew, the Lyon players couldn't help but shrug their shoulders, and not just because they were French. Nothing else can be done. Lyon, France's seventh place team, met the giants from Germany in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

There are missed goalscoring opportunities to consider, but Lyon will have to admit what European football has already suspected: Maybe nothing can stop Bayern Munich this season.

"You know that when you play a better team than you, you just have to accept the result," Lyon sporting director Juninho said after the 3-0 defeat. "

A different French team, closer to heavyweight Bayern, will now take on the German champions on Sunday in Lisbon. (Paris Saint Germain) scored their ticket to the final after passing RB Leipzig on Tuesday, setting up a showdown between the continent's two super clubs. PSG have won seven of the last eight French league titles, while Bayern claim nine of the last 11 in Germany.

The biggest difference between their trophy cabinets is Bayern Munich's five European trophies. The club can now only become the second team in modern history of the Champions League to win the tournament without losing a game.

(Nothing scares us) said defender Benjamin Pavard. We're Bayern Munich.

Bayern put Europe on notice last week, with Lionel Messi's 8-2 demolition of Barcelona. Such results have long come for Spanish clubs, with aging teams, disastrous recruits and inner political turmoil. But nobody expected the tally to be so harsh - they didn't expect it to come from Bayern either.

The German champions appeared to be doing their own calculations at least nine months ago. Under the manager (Niko Kovac), they won, for the most part, but without dominating as the fans expected. They are not inspired. This is not a team that looks like it has a Champions League final in the future.

So Bayern fired Kovac in November and replaced him with a German football company man, (Hansi Flick). A former assistant national team coach, Flick already has close ties with Bayern's core players in Germany. And when that happens, he also knows what it takes to fill in a short, one-off tournament like this summer's Champions League - long before anyone realizes it's going to be the format in Lisbon. Flick has been a key member of Germany's preparation for winning the World Cup (2014)
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Now the coach who never even led the team a year ago is one game away from winning the Champions League. And there is no doubt that his team will enter that match, the club's 11th European final, as heavy favorites.

Bayern's offensive machine has been running at high speed since arriving in Portugal before the quarter-finals, scoring (11) goals and (45) shots in just two games. It's not that the club makes a lot of mistakes in the early stages of the tournament. Bayern have scored (42) goals in Europe this season, surpassing the total only by Barcelona's (45) goals in (1999-2000)

Even so, Lyon have the opportunity to make things a little uncomfortable. Unafraid to challenge their opponents at speed, the Lyon attacker found plenty of space behind the Bayern defense from the start. But the game turned out well in about 60 seconds, almost (17) minutes.

At one end of the field, Lyon broke again, only for Karl Toko-Ekambi to hit the post from seven meters away. Moments later, Bayern's Serge Gnabry charged forward at the opposite end. He finished his solo run with a left-footed blast which drowned Lyon. Bayern's second and third goals, from Gnabry again and Robert Lewandowski, respectively, added to the points.

"We scored at the right time" said Pavard.

But that's easy to say if you always seem to be scoring Goals