Five Conclusions From the Audi Cup

The Audi Cup is over. Bayern and Man Utd played out the final while Boca and Milan competed for third place. The team which suffered the worst defeat was AC Milan. This is what happened:

Man Utd 2-1 Boca

Goals from Anderson and Antonio Valencia sent Man Utd into the break with a 2-0 lead. After the break, Insua got one back, but it was too little too late for Boca.

Bayern 4-1 AC Milan

This match was a one-sided affair with Bayern proving that they are strong enough to fend off any opposition. Luca Toni, Franck Ribery and Ivica Olic were all injured while Miroslav Klose was out with the flu. As a result, Thomas Muller started alongside Mario Gomez upfront.

Muller did not disappoint. He opened the scoring and later added the icing on the cake by scoring the fourth. Schweinsteiger scored the second and debutant Saer Sene scored the third. Andrea Pirlo scored for Milan when they were 2-0 down. However Bayern gave Milan a thrashing that will not be easy to forget.

Third Place Play-off: Boca 1-1 Milan (Boca won 4-3 on penalties)

Thiago Silva scored for Milan only for Boca to equalize through Lucas Viatri in the 87th minute. Andrea Pirlo and Insua traded misses while Alexandre Pato's miss handed Boca third place.

Final: Bayern 0-0 Man Utd (Bayern won 7-6 on penalties)

Bayern and Man Utd both had chances and failed to capitalize. During the shoot-out, Daniel Pranjic and Evra traded misses at the score at 3-4. Michael Rensing denied Jonny Evans at the score at 6-6. Daniel Van Buyten stepped up and scored, thus handing Bayern their first piece of silverware this season.

Conclusions:

1. Bayern are not heavily dependant on Franck Ribery any more. Bayern played their entire pre-season out without Ribery. They won the Audi Cup without him as well. If Bayern do well in the upcoming competitions without Ribery, it will truly show that Bayern have ample cover for Ribery.

This is not to say that Ribery doesn't make Bayern a better side. He does, but Bayern can also do well without him.

2. There is something seriously wrong with AC Milan. AC Milan's preseason has been nothing short of disastrous. Without Kaka, Milan are going through difficult times. Maybe, the results in pre-season are not that important. However, Milan willl be really down in confidence at the start of the Serie-A season after this pre-season.

3. Man Utd v. Bayern is never a friendly. If you don't believe this, look at the tackles in the match. Somehow, every match they play has a link to the 99' CL final. Bayern never want to lose like that again and defeating Man Utd is special for them. Defeating  Bayern is also special for Man Utd.

This time, however, Bayern emerged victorious.

4. Michael Rensing is definitely not a bad keeper. The performance that Rensing put in was nothing short of excellent. Maybe Bayern don't need a new keeper after all!

5. Real Madrid's money has weakened the big sides. Maybe Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka could have made a difference. I am not going to say that Man Utd or AC Milan would have surely won with these guys in their side.

Yet, maybe these players could have made a difference.

Well that's about it. Bayern have picked up their first silverware and maybe more is about to come. Who knows?