FC Bayern made it two wins out of two on the Audi Summer Tour of China so far with a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan on Tuesday, Mario Götze netting the only goal of the game on 80 minutes. A boisterous 37,000 crowd at Shanghai Stadium, mostly clad in the famous red of Munich, saw a lively friendly clash, with the Bavarians clearly superior to their Italian opponents for long spells.
Pep Guardiola started his side in a 3-1-4-2 formation with Manuel Neuer and Jérôme Boateng (plus Mario Götze in the second half) making their first appearances of the season. New signing Douglas Costa, who made a good impression in the friendly against Valencia, provided a constant threat down the right flank this time – and set up the first chances for a determined FCB side through Robert Lewandowski (7) and Thomas Müller (10).
In spite of sweltering 28 degree temperatures combined with relative humidity of 85 percent FC Bayern maintained a high tempo against Inter who were missing the injured former Munich man Xherdan Shaqiri. One of the best chances fell to skipper Philipp Lahm (32), who had to go off just before the break after taking a knock on his thigh - a purely precautionary measure, Guardiola said at half-time. And Müller just missed the target a minute before the break after another impressive through ball from Costa.
Guardiola made four changes for the second half but that initially made no difference to the action on the pitch. Bayern retained the upper hand, looked encouragingly lively and moved the ball well. The closest effort came from a free kick on 57 minutes when substitute Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg grazed the woodwork. After the hour mark and numerous changes it looked like the two sides had cancelled each other out. But, with ten minutes to play, Götze rounded the Inter keeper and netted the winner after Sebastian Rode picked him out with an excellent pass from the left side of midfield.