Bayern Munich lost Franck Ribery to a red card but still managed to edge out Lyon 1-0 in a dour Champions League semi-final first leg clash in Germany on Wednesday night.
Ribery was dismissed for a shocking over-the-top-of-the-ball challenge on Lisandro just before the interval but Lyon were then reduced to ten men early in the second half when Jeremy Toulalon was rather harshly shown a second yellow.
An awful game was then decided in fittingly sub-standard fashion, Arjen Robben's long-range effort deflecting off Thomas Muller's head on its way past Hugo Lloris and into the Lyon net.
It had always looked like it would take a huge stroke of luck to produce a goal. Certainly, neither side appeared to possess a player of breaking the deadlock.
Bayern's attacking players were particularly culpable in the first half. Indeed, they should have opened the scoring 13 minutes in but Bastian Schweinsteiger headed horribly wide when left completely unmarked in the Lyon box for a Bayern corner.
Ivica Olic proved just as profligate when presented with his first sight of goal, the Croat skewing the ball high and wide after being slipped in by Robben.
Lyon seemed merely content to invite their hosts on to them but they were presented with a glorious chance to take control of the tie when Ribery saw red for a disgraceful stamp on Lisandro's ankle.
However, the visitors' numerical advantage did not last long, Toulalon collecting his second booking of the evening nine minutes into the second half - despite the fact that he appeared to make clear contact with the ball as he challenged Schweinsteiger.
As soon as it became ten-v-ten, Robben came to the fore. He fired just wide on the hour after shifting the ball deftly past Cris and on to his left foot and then beautifully picked out Mario Gomez at the far post eight minutes later only to see his centre-forward head the ball weakly into the ground and up into Lloris' arms.
However, less than 60 seconds later and Robben was celebrating, the Dutch winger's 30-metre shot deceiving Lloris courtesy of a slight - but crucial - flick off Muller as the latter tried to get out of the way.
Robben twice went close to doubling Bayern's advantage in the remaining minutes but Lloris denied him on both occasions, leaving the tie delicately poised ahead of what will hopefully be a far more exciting second leg in France.