AL RAYYAN, QATAR – Tigres UANL’s attempt to win a first ever FIFA Club World Cup title came up just short with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the 2020 FCWC Final on Thursday night at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar.
Nevertheless, the Liga MX side made plenty of history in becoming the first Concacaf side to play in a FCWC Final, while FW Andre-Pierre Gignac became the first Concacaf player to finish as the outright top scorer at a FCWC (3 goals).
It was an energetic start with the two teams trading early chances, the first coming for Tigres via a header from Gignac in the 2’.
Overall, though, Bayern had the majority of the chances in the first half, including a Leroy Sane strike in the 34’ that grazed off the top of the crossbar.
Nevertheless, the Tigres defense hung tough and allowed Gignac and the rest of the forward line the opportunity to try to do damage on the counterattack.
Tigres continued to keep the Bayern attack at bay, despite a warning from Serge Gnabry in the 51’ that narrowly missed.
However, eight minutes later in the 59’ the Germans would get the breakthrough when Benjamin Pavard took advantage of a rebound off a punched ball from Tigres GK Nahuel Guzman and fired into an open net for a 1-0 Bayern lead.
Tigres looked to respond, but breaching what was a very solid and compact Bayern back line proved too difficult.
Guzman came up with a pair of big saves in the final 10 minutes to keep Los Felinos within striking distance. In the 81’, an effort from Corentin Tolisso saw Guzman deflect the ball onto the post before it rolled back into his hands. That was then followed by another massive save in the 85’ on Bayern attacker Douglas Costa.
Tigres offered up one final push, but were unable to find the equalizing goal, bringing their memorable first FCWC campaign to a close.
