Disputed goal takes Bayern past Lille

Bayern Munich won 1-0 away to Lille in the Champions League on Tuesday but the scoreline barely reflected the one-sided nature of the Group F tie.

A disputed penalty from Thomas Mueller after 20 minutes was the difference between the sides but Bayern made most of the running and should have won by a decidedly more comfortable margin.

Although it was not a particularly bad-tempered game, English referee Martin Atkinson saw fit to book eight players, five of them from Bayern.

Franck Ribery was given a rough ride on his return to his native northern France as first Djibril Sidibe and then Florent Balmont dragged him to the ground, but both free kicks were wasted with Mickael Landreau punching both clear.

Bayern broke the deadlock in the 20th minute when Lucas Digne clattered Philipp Lahm to the ground and despite angry Lille protests, referee Atkinson pointed to the spot and Mueller dispatched it straight past Landreau.

Lille's best chance of the half came on the half-hour as Digne crossed from the left but it sailed over the inrushing Nathan Roux and Tulio De Melo and out to safety.

The half was marred by a spate of bookings, first for Bayern's Jerome Boateng when he upended Roux and Sidibe followed for a crude shove on Ribery.

Just before the interval, Javi Martinez was cautioned for a foul on Roux but Lille's Benoit Peretti evened things up when he was next in the book for a trip on Toni Kroos.

Ribery's involvment came to an abrupt end at half-time when he reappeared on the bench with his left thigh heavily bandaged to be replaced by Xherdan Shaqiri.

Shortly afterwards Digne became the fifth man booked for a sliding tackle on Mueller.

Bayern contained Lille for long spells despite some deft approach play from the French side but the statistics showed that goakepper Manuel Neuer hardly had a save worthy of the name to make all night.

Lahm should have doubled the score for Bayern in the 69th minute as he raced on to a neat through ball but Landreau got down well to smother the ball before he could take aim.

Mario Mandzukic fell foul of the referee and went into the book for a clumsy challenge on Balmont.

Lille had a penalty appeal waved away in the 72nd minute when Balmont went down in the area after apparently being held back by Martinez.

Mueller squandered a golden opportunity with a quarter of an hour left, pushing Lahm's cross wide as he slid into the area.

In a last throw of the dice, Lille coach Rudi Garcia sent on Ryan Mendes, but the young attacker ran gamely but to little effect.

Shaqiri was booked for a foul on Balmont in the dying minutes and Bastian Schweinsteiger rounded off the night's bookings when he saw yellow for bringing down Franck Beria.