Guardian

ARJEN Robben scored a dramatic late winner as Bayern Munich beat fellow German side Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley.

The heroics of both goalkeepers kept the game goalless until Bayern broke through when Mario Mandzukic tapped in a Robben cut-back on the hour.

Borussia quickly equalised with Ilkay Gundogan’s penalty after Dante’s clumsy foul on Marco Reus.

But Robben stole in late on and tucked a shot into the bottom corner.

It was a surreal end to a thrilling Champions League final, a beautiful game settled by a route one goal with the glory belonging to a player and manager that are set to leave Bayern Munich this summer.

Robben settled the competition with one minute remaining, as legless Borussia Dortmund failed to cope with a hopeful punt towards the edge of their area. Franck Ribery teed up his team-mate, who dodged a posse of Dortmund defenders to apply the finishing touch and send Jupp Heynckes out on a high.

The former Chelsea winger is also expected to follow his boss out the exit door this summer with Pep Guardiola facing the prospect of taking over at the conclusion of the most memorable year in Bayern’s history. If they collect the German Cup next weekend, they will be treble winners for the first time.

After the pain of their defeat to Chelsea 12 months ago, where Robben’s profligacy was central to the plot, this was a sweet moment for Bayern.

They proved the more streetwise team here, with a Dortmund unit that kicked off in a dynamic manner that ties in with the personality of their charismatic supremo Jurgen Klopp surprisingly naive when it came down to the crunch.

Suggestions that the presence of two teams from the same league would dilute the final as a spectacle proved inaccurate. The supporters created a carnival atmosphere around the ground in the hours beforehand, with the Dortmund fans arriving early to make a serious din. When the game got underway, their team also appeared better prepared; the underdogs burst from the blocks with purpose and played the first 25 minutes at a tempo that Bayern Munich struggled to match.

With the spine of the team laying the foundations, the dovetailing of their forward players left Bayern in a spin with the movement of Marco Reus opening spaces and Polish pair Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Blaszczykowski finding them. The latter threatened twice in the early exchanges, firstly shooting wide before he was denied by a brilliant Manuel Neuer save from an accurate Reus delivery. Sven Bender emerged from his more withdrawn midfield role to test Neuer before Reus stung the keeper’s palms and then forced a foul from Bayern’s Brazilian centre half Dante that prompted referee Nicola Rizzoli to reach into his pocket for a yellow card.