David Alaba injury sours Bayern Munich's third straight German Super Cup title

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:29 am

David Alaba battles for a ball.
David Alaba battles for a ball.
DANIEL ROLAND/AFP/Getty Images

Bayern Munich cruised to a third consecutive DFL Super Cup success with a comfortable 5-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt but Niko Kovac's first competitive game in charge against his former club was soured by a knee injury to David Alaba.

Robert Lewandowski scored a hat trick while Kingsley Coman and Thiago rounded off the scoring. However, with Bayern already leading 4-0 Alaba got tangled up near the touchline by Danny da Costa and had to leave the field after treatment.

Bayern had already used all their allocation of substitutes so were forced to play the final 15 minutes with only 10 men. Despite the man disadvantage, Thiago scored his goal with five minutes remaining to seal a resounding victory against the German Cup winners.

"The injury to Alaba is the only downer," Kovac told German broadcaster ZDF.

"We don't know the extent of the injury but he suffered a knock to his knee and we will have to do a scan either today or tomorrow. We hope that it's nothing serious and just bruising."

Meanwhile, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic wasn't amused with Frankfurt's robust tackling despite Bayern's comfortable lead in German football's curtain-raiser.

"Frankfurt's style of play wasn't okay," Salihamidzic told reporters after the final whistle.

Despite Alaba's injury, Kovac paid tribute to his new side's display after the leisurely victory.

"I have to congratulate and pay a compliment to my side. Over the course of the 90 minutes we performed really well," Kovac said.

"We scored the goals at just the right time. The large margin of victory was deserved but we shouldn't overstate the game, also from a Frankfurt point of view."

Meanwhile, Mats Hummels felt the opening night success was an important morale booster following Bayern's defeats in the Champions League semifinal to Real Madrid, the cup final to Eintracht, not to mention the embarrassing failure of Germany's World Cup campaign.

"The title means a great deal to the club and the internationals after all the disappointment from the end of April. We wanted to start the season positively and are pleased that we managed to do this," Hummels said.