Kane does magic, Kimmich gets upset
Manuel Neuer enjoys and surprises with the DFB statement
October 28, 2023, 9:47 p.m
Manuel Neuer has a “bizarre” comeback game in Bayern Munich’s furious 8-0 win over Darmstadt. Once he stops brilliantly. For the first time in the Bundesliga there are three red cards in the first half. After the game, the returnee is in a chatting mood.
From a purely sporting perspective, Harry Kane was the man of the day. From a purely annoying perspective, the title would fall at the feet of Joshua Kimmich. But none of that mattered, because Manuel Neuer is back and is celebrating his comeback with an 8-0 (0-0) win with FC Bayern against newly promoted SV Darmstadt 98. That a goalkeeper is the one to worry about in such a win everyone talks, it doesn’t happen often. The result is actually proof enough that the goalkeeper was expected to do very little work. And yes, that’s how it was. Neuer didn’t have to help much to secure the biggest win of the season. But no matter, his presence outshone everything.
Even this game, which itself had an outsized story to tell. For example that of Kimmich, who was thrown off the pitch after four minutes. The reason for his involuntary lightning departure was the emergency brake. That had pretty stupid consequences for him and his team. Kimmich is not allowed to play in the giants’ duel against BVB next Saturday. Because Leon Goretzka is also at risk of being sidelined due to his hand injury, coach Thomas Tuchel will have to get creative again and possibly completely rebuild the midfield center. “The sending off was very stupid. And I’m very annoyed that I’m missing against Dortmund,” admitted Kimmich. After a pass from Neuer, he wasted the ball in the penalty area.
Kimmich disagrees with red
The midfield boss found the direct expulsion excessive. “I pluck it, but I wasn’t responsible for it falling. When I lost the ball, I already had in my head that I can’t foul him, otherwise it’s red. I tried to stay away as best I could. That “It didn’t work out so well.” Unlike Neuer’s comeback, he was able to really advertise himself for the first time after 36 minutes. In the one-on-one duel with Marvin Mehlem, he kept the upper hand with an outstanding save – which would probably have happened if…, well, whatever. At this point the game was numerically equal again, Klaus Gjasula was no longer allowed to take part in the 21st minute, and the same applied to Matej Maglica five minutes later. Both had also applied the forbidden emergency brake. “The first half was bizarre. Three red cards, wow, that was crazy,” said Neuer. Eleven highlights – eight goals and three dismissals in the comeback – welcome back to the Bundesliga.
Now there was a lot of space on the field, Darmstadt was no longer able to keep the large area small and Bayern showed no mercy to their speedsters around Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sané and Jamal Musiala. It ended like this: star striker Kane was the man of the day with three goals (51st/68th/88th minute), purely in terms of sport of course. The strong Englishman scored the best goal of this afternoon, which was full of goals, with a shot from his own half over his shoes. “It’s the first time I’ve managed that,” said Kane happily. After nine games this season, the 100 million euro man has now scored twelve times.
The double packers Sané (56th/64th) and Musiala (61st/76th) as well as joker Thomas Müller (71st) also scored. There had been debates about him again because he wasn’t even used during the week against Galatasaray, unlike Bouna Sarr or Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Mathys Tel. Tuchel tried to keep the topic as small as possible hold, but makes no secret of the fact that it is not easy to host less and less playing time for the club icon. But the coach justifies this with the form strength of the others, which was impressively fed with new arguments in the second half against Darmstadt.
“I was positively excited”
So, now to Neuer, the man of the day. After a long silence, the words just burst out. “I’m as happy as I’ve rarely been after a game that I finally made it,” said the 37-year-old in an interview with Sky. “I was positively excited, not so much that I was nervous, but in a certain expectation of what was going to happen out here. I was just really happy to be back in the Allianz Arena, to play in front of my own fans again and with the team to stand on the pitch.” He was the first to get off the Bayern bus when he arrived at the stadium. And when he stepped onto the pitch to warm up, it got really loud in the stadium for the first time that afternoon. It was a cold start, almost eleven months after the last game in Germany’s early World Cup exit in Qatar.
During the rehab, during which there were also setbacks, he had “absolutely no” thoughts that this was it and that he no longer wanted to put himself through the effort. “There were a lot of ups and downs, that’s clear, but I always had the will to return, was always ambitious.” This applies not only to his club, but also to the national team. Even if he is still cautious about this topic and even says surprising things: “We have great goalkeepers – and we are all looking forward to the European Championships,” says Neuer. To the quite explosive number 1 question and his competitor Marc-André ter Stegen, he answered briefly and succinctly: “I think that he is definitely number one at the moment.” Even before his injury, Neuer was unwilling to leave even an inch of space in the goal. He claimed every game for himself. For him, the competitors were not competitors, but assigned places in the clear hierarchy.
Neuer also thanked his deputy Sven Ulreich, who is moving back into the second tier without complaint after some outstanding performance: “I am also very grateful to Sven Ulreich. We have a great relationship and I am happy for him that he has shown such good performances and of course he’s happy for me.”
Tuchel is also struggling
Tuchel was also in a good mood, even if he didn’t like everything about this crazy afternoon: “Our first half was full of mistakes, there was a lack of intensity. We collected ourselves at halftime. The answer then came. It was an extraordinary one Game, with the undernumbered, the equal number and the overnumbered number. Compliments to my team for this reaction. Now we can move on.”
After the DFB Cup second round game at 1. FC Saarbrücken on Wednesday, Bayern will play the league classic at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Thomas Tuchel has the final say on further deployment planning, emphasized Neuer: “The coach obviously has the say, and then it’s off. I’m just trying to regenerate and concentrate on the next tasks.” Will Tuchel actually entrust Neuer with the big task in the Dortmund stadium? It’s unclear, he didn’t gain any insight into his form against Darmstadt, but that didn’t really matter at first.