Saturday, December 18, 2021
Pavard has to go, Musiala stays
The toilet secret behind Lewandowski’s record
Robert Lewandowski has to tremble until shortly before the end. He needs one more goal for the next record. When time is running out, his teammate Benjamin Pavard helps him. He has to go to the bathroom and even changes the course of Bundesliga history.
Bayern professional Benjamin Pavard caused a curious scene in the Munich home win against VfL Wolfsburg. The 83rd minute of the game was running in the Allianz Arena on Friday evening when the French soccer world champion suddenly ran towards the catacombs after a pass on the sidelines and disappeared for a short time.
The rather perplexed coach Julian Nagelsmann had to reschedule at short notice. He actually wanted to replace Jamal Musiala. But as Pavard simply stormed off the pitch, the coach swapped the defender without further ado – and Musiala was finally able to prepare the goal for Robert Lewandowski’s 4-0 final score (88th minute). Nagelsmann later cleared up the confusion surrounding Pavard at the press conference: “We wanted to change. Then Benji came out and said in French that he had to go to the bathroom. I understood that with my modest school-French. Then he still met times decided to play for 15 seconds. He played three or four more passes. And when the ball was on the other side, it disappeared into the catacombs. “
“Just one step higher”
The fourth official did not then immediately realize that Bayern did not want to replace Musiala, but Pavard. “I then took a quick look again to see if he was coming,” Nagelsmann remarked to Klogänger Pavard: “But he didn’t. That’s why we made the change differently. But that worked out quite well.” Thanks to Musiala, Lewandowski was able to score his 43rd goal in 2021 – Bundesliga record.
“I’m very happy. I’m very proud,” said the exceptional Polish striker about his next record. With 41 goals Lewandowski had only surpassed Müller’s record of 40 goals in a Bundesliga season last May. “It wasn’t an easy game for me personally,” said Lewandowski after the last league game in 2021: “There were no free spaces, Wolfsburg played very defensively.” The Pole rarely finished against Wolfsburg, but he scored twice, broke the record and said: “This year was just one step higher for me.” Then he disappeared into the short winter break.