The Club World Cup is calling: Red Bull Salzburg is 50 million richer thanks to FC Bayern

German football champions FC Bayern, dethroned by Leverkusen, remain in the race for a title. In front of 75,000 visitors in the Allianz Arena, the Munich team moved into the Champions League semi-finals, in which Real Madrid will be their opponents, with a 1-0 (0-0) home win over Arsenal and an overall score of 3-2 .

The “White Ballet” eliminated Manchester City away with a 4-3 win on penalties. After 120 minutes the score was 1-1 thanks to goals from Real striker Rodrygo (12th) and Kevin de Bruyne (76th). In the shootout, Bernardo Silva and Linz-born Mateo Kovacic failed on the English side; Luka Modric’s missed shot had no long-term consequences for the Madrilenians. At 11:47 p.m. Antonio Rüdiger converted the decisive penalty in a confident manner.

Image: AFP/Staples

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Real Madrid in luck
Image: AFP/Staples

The match winner for Bayern, where ÖFB team player Konrad Laimer did a great job in midfield, was right-back Joshua Kimmich, who spectacularly headed a Guerreiro cross into the net to make it 1-0 in the 63rd minute. That was also deserved. The game didn’t quite live up to its promise. Great mutual respect characterized the proceedings, but Thomas Tuchel’s team was tactically very disciplined, more active and, for example, unlucky with a double goal (Leon Goretzka & Raphael Guerreiro/63.). On the other hand, there was very little coming from Arsenal for a long time.

“It’s an outstanding feeling. If you also look at the first leg, the bottom line is that we’re rightly going through,” gold goal scorer Kimmich would later say. Austrian champions FC Salzburg, who benefited from the failure of Arsenal FC, also celebrated with him. The “Gunners” would have had to win the Champions League in order to steal the last of twelve European starting places from the “Red Bulls” in the Club World Cup, which has been expanded to 32 teams, in the USA in the summer of 2025 (June 15th to July 13th). That is no longer possible now.

Salzburg is reaping the rewards for strong international performances in recent years and also benefits from the fact that a maximum of two clubs per nation are eligible to take part. FC Barcelona, ​​for example, will be conspicuous by its absence from this tournament, in which a total of 2.5 billion euros in bonuses are to be distributed.

According to Italian media reports, each qualified club will receive around 50 million as signing money from FIFA. That beats the Champions League by far.