Clever, that’s what Julian Nagelsmann, the soccer coach at FC Bayern, called his French central defender Dayot Upamecano on Friday. He should explain why Upamecano was able to secure a starting place in the first games of the season. “He is,” said Nagelsmann, “a clever guy who draws lessons from last season, omits one or the other risky ball or one or the other careless action.”
That’s why Upamecano was able to prevail against his new competitor: the 77 million euro man Matthijs de Ligt. Then came the Bundesliga top game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday. Then came the 43rd minute. Then the ball hit the center line. And one thing that Upamecano’s action, which then changed the course of this game, was certainly not: clever.
When the champion plays in these weeks, goals conceded are so rare that you have to look at them in detail. It was Christoph Kramer, the Mönchengladbach midfielder, who cleared the ball with a shot. And it was Upamecano who wanted to pass him back to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer on the halfway line. Not a smart decision. Because running direction (forwards) and passing direction (backwards) were opposite. And because Ball and Upamecano were in the air. And so the ball didn’t roll at Neuer’s feet, but rather at Marcus Thuram, who made it 1-0.
Musiala not ready for 90 minutes
On the fourth day of the Bundesliga match, FC Bayern Munich fell behind for the first time this season – and later did not leave the stadium as a winner either. With his goal in the 83rd minute, however, Leroy Sané saved a point and first place in the table. With a view to the Bundesliga, however, one should not interpret too much into this 1-1: Because Bayern stormed and pushed like in the games before.
On Saturday evening, Julian Nagelsmann used Kingsley Coman, Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller and Sadio Mané. In his 4-2-2-2 system, he has to choose four strikers in the starting XI. It should have been easier for him this time at least because Jamal Musiala, who missed Bochum with a strain, wasn’t ready for 90 minutes. So Bayern stormed without the man who made the difference in the first few games.
In the 22nd minute, Coman shot the ball over the goal (before that he had dribbled three opponents and even tunnelled Alassane Pléa). In the 30th minute, Sané shot the ball over the goal. In the 34th and 39th minute, Sadio Mané shot the ball into the goal – and yet remained without a goal. Offside. The Mönchengladbach defenders tried to get forward with passes when they had the ball. But they rarely did. And so it was perfect that the goal came after a good old liberation.
“We played a very good game, I think our best this season,” said Julian Nagelsmann later in the press conference. Because of Munich’s 35 shots on goal. And because of Mönchengladbach’s few chances. The coach said of himself that Dayot Upamecano and his mistakes had played “very well before and after”. His words matched his actions: he didn’t substitute Upamecano.
In the second half, in which Bayern continued to storm and push, one man was the focus until the 83rd minute: Yann Sommer, the goalkeeper from Mönchengladbach. He prevented so many goals with his saves that it should be enough for his own best-of video: twice against Mané, once against Sané, once against Müller, once against Benjamin Pavard and once against Serge Gnabry, in the 68th minute was substituted on. Together with Musiala, who initiated the only action in which Sommer was powerless. He passed the ball through the penalty area, where Sané shot it left into the left corner.
Things got wild in the arena in Munich. The players argued, the fans screamed. Marcus Thuram had a second chance for Mönchengladbach in added time. And Matthijs de Ligt, who came on very late not as a central defender but as a center forward because of his header power, the umpteenth time for Munich. But Yann Sommer deflected his shot around the post. And even if a victory for the 35-shot Bavarians would have been well deserved, that was also a fitting end.