FC Bayern Munich delivered a good game against Manchester City. The fact that the German record champions are still faced with an almost impossible task in the second leg of this Champions League round of 16 is something he has to attribute to himself.
What actually happened at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester?
FC Bayern is working through a complicated season: the most expensive coach in European club football had to leave early, the prominent successor lost his first chance for the title in his second game and in mid-April they are still not champions in the Bundesliga. This is quite different in Munich. European holidays help, of course. But Manchester City, that was clear beforehand, is of course extremely unsuitable as a mood lifter: Pep Guardiola’s team is still one of the biggest challenges that football has in store. And Erling Haaland, this storm titan, is a force of nature.
FC Bayern didn’t even have to counter Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. The striker, Bayern’s top scorer in the current Champions League season with four goals in six games, had to stay in Munich with knee problems. The fact that this is a problem – with all due respect for the impeccable ex-Mainzer who is still getting better at the age of 35 – also says something about FC Bayern these days: Nothing can be taken for granted anymore and in the end there is no Robert Lewandowski more up front, this indestructible miracle striker, who has always been there in recent years and scored for the good mood and one or the other title.
Sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic frankly reported in advance of the game that Haaland “didn’t have the wherewithal”. And because Sadio Mané, the world star who was sent to Munich in the summer with great admiration, has not really arrived there in sporting terms, the challenge in April 2023 was even greater. And they accepted the challenge, of course. And it was good, it took Manchester City a long, long time to become dangerous.
The Bundesliga team was extremely solid defensively and at least managed to gain 50 percent possession of the ball. There were individual reasons for the fact that it ended up going back to Munich with a clear bankruptcy. Structurally, it seemed for a long time that the battered FC Bayern could keep up with the favorites. But whenever you were particularly good, so Tuchel analyzed, Manchester City scored. And because you were often good in the game, the English champions scored more often. In the perceived Munich truth too often, and probably too often for a Munich advancement. Even if Tuchel promises: “Nothing will be given away.”
Teams & Goals
Manchester City: Ederson – Akanji, Dias, Aké – Stones, Rodri – Silva, De Bruyne (68th Alvarez), Gundogan, Grealish – Haaland.
FC Bayern Munich: Summer – Pavard, Upamecano, de Ligt, Davies (80th Joao Cancelo) – Kimmich, Goretzka – Coman, Musiala (69th Mane), Sane – Gnabry (80th Müller).
Gates: 1-0 Rodri (27′), 2-0 Silva (70′), 3-0 Haaland (77′)
Referee: Gil Manzano (Spain)
Yellow cards: Silva/Davies, Pavard.
What idea did Thomas Tuchel have?
Thomas Tuchel relied on speed: Captain Thomas Müller had to sit on the bench at the beginning of the game, with Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman the new coach relied on a high-speed offensive. “The last 30 meters, where he’s absolutely world class – that’s the zone that we think we can only get in at speed for a short time,” explained Tuchel his renunciation of the attacker. “We wanted runners and fast dribblers, agile players who are also fast at distance.”
And they followed the plan, when they won the ball every attempt quickly went into depth. Musiala in particular caused stress in the center in front of the penalty area. Of course, you didn’t create big chances at the front. And Mueller? In the meantime, he was promoted to assistant coach: Towards the end of the first half, Tuchel had a lively chat with his most experienced player. However, he only came into play deep in the second half.
The fact that FC Bayern was always dangerous had a lot to do with individual ideas from Leroy Sané. He shot three times with a lot of quality from a distance on goal. In general, the former city professional made a good game. Offensive colleague Serge Gnabry, on the other hand, had no effect. In the end, it was a stroke of genius by Rodri to make it 1-0, which made Tuchel laugh a little desperately, and individual mistakes that led to the clear defeat.
“I don’t see the result at all,” said Thomas Tuchel afterwards. “I refuse to badmouth the performance in any way, I’m very satisfied.” He fell in love with his team. Of course, the goals came in phases when his team was really strong, when the momentum almost “would have completely collapsed”. Manchester partially scored the goals from “not even half chances to score”, said Tuchel. Yes, they were strong, yes, they would have earned a lot more than this mortgage, which seems to make progress against Pep Guardiola’s perfectly attuned football machine almost impossible.
But the bitter part of the truth is also: “We are making too many mistakes at this level at the moment,” said Amazon expert Matthias Sammer. And “Mistakes are not an option.” Manchester City don’t make mistakes. That was the difference tonight. Matthijs de Ligt said accordingly: “The result is bitter.” Captain Joshua Kimmich thought it was “brutal, the first 60 minutes in particular were very, very good,” as he analyzed Amazon Prime Video with a black eye and battered by a difficult fight.
And Erling Haaland?
“The athleticism and the hunger for goals stand out,” said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel about the Norwegian elemental force Erling Haaland. Nothing surprising, the ex-Dortmunder scored 30 goals in the Premier League and five alone in the Champions League round of 16 duel with RB Leipzig this season. “We will only solve it as a team. It will take diligence and willingness, it cannot only be solved technically and tactically. We will also have to prove ourselves in direct duels.”
In the 15th minute, however, it was a reckless move by Yann Sommer that brought Haaland to the fore: the goalkeeper held the ball a meter in front of his own line for a moment too long at his foot, the rushing Haaland almost scored his goal. A few minutes later, the Norwegian, quickly set free by Ilkay Gündogan and Jack Grealish, failed with a weak shot from a promising position. And otherwise? Nothing more in the first half. The Torgiant actually took place little.
The second half then began like the first: Sommer put Haaland in a promising final position. A failed attempt by the Bayern keeper to clear the ball landed on the City striker’s foot – who was blocked at the last moment. They had thrown a spanner in the works for the goal machine, it was a small win in a big game. But because Dayot Upamecano lost the ball badly, Haaland got the ball back in Bayern’s penalty area in the 70th minute – and crossed the ball softly to Bernardo Silva, who headed in to make it 2-0. Now he’s even scoring goals… And then Haaland scored in the 77th minute when FC Bayern briefly broke up in the constant rain from Manchester. Somehow the giant that the whole world knows is the most dangerous goalscorer of our time manages to sneak free in front of the goal.
The Norwegian star striker set another record on that rainy evening. The 22-year-old scored his 45th goal of the season in all competitions. According to the data service provider Opta, no player in the English Premier League has ever managed this in a single season. It must be that “hunger for goals” they’re all talking about.
The votes for the game:
Thomas Tuchel (FC Bayern Munich coach): “I don’t see the result that clearly. At 0: 2 we were punished bitterly out of nowhere. Upamecano himself knows that it was his mistake. I still refuse to badmouth the performance. I have a very bad one We saw a good performance up until the 70th minute. We deserved at least one goal and gave away one or two too many. There’s still a bit of form and confidence missing. When you’re playing so well, you need a little bit of luck yourself, a deflected shot or a shot in the angle like Manchester City had when it was 1-0. Today it was still fun coaching the team, I fell in love with the team a bit.”
Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich): “The first 60 minutes were very, very good. We get another shot on Sunday, like we did against Freiburg. It didn’t have to be that we fell behind. After that we became a little more error-prone and that gave us a few chances. The first half got us I was given self-confidence, we were very good defensively, we were able to make changes.We also came out very well after the break, but then the mistake happened before it was 2-0.I already have the confidence and self-confidence in the team that we can do something in the second leg can fetch.”
Matthijs de Ligt (Bayern Munich): “We gave the game away unnecessarily. We had enough chances ourselves, so it’s a shame that we lost like that. Of course, the feeling sucks now, even though we played against a very good opponent. It’s important that we stick together now, analyze the game and then look ahead because we still have many important weeks ahead of us.”