Thomas Tuchel struggles with erratic FC Bayern – Impressive Victor Boniface dances the tango in Munich

Questioning Tuchel is looking for solutions
Boniface dances tango with bouncy FC Bayern

By Tobias Nordmann
September 16, 2023, 7:34 a.m

FC Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen are having a wild exchange of blows in the top game of the Bundesliga. The first 45 minutes in particular are breathtaking. Sometimes the hosts dominate, then the guests impress. The referee causes excitement.

In the 98th minute of this thrilling Bundesliga top game between FC Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen, Dayot Upamecano made a turn, ran jubilantly towards the Munich bench, the stadium management played the well-known goal music and a small light show brightened up the Allianz Arena. But only for a tiny moment. The linesman had hastily raised the flag. Offside. Not another wild turn in this duel between the league leaders from the Rhineland and his first rival from the Free State. The French central defender was offside when he shot from close range. A completely uncontroversial decision. That wasn’t always the case on Friday evening. At 2:2 (1:1), Munich had to talk. Later more.

Upamecano could have been the hero in a game in which he stood like no other player for what Munich coach Thomas Tuchel later said: “Sometimes we had control, sometimes we didn’t, sometimes we were compact, sometimes we weren’t.” After just seven minutes, the record champions’ inspired footballers had taken the lead. After a corner, Harry Kane suddenly found himself blank at the far post and easily headed the ball over the line. The Munich team’s chest was getting bigger and Leverkusen was reeling. It seemed to be like so often: a rebellious challenger comes to the Allianz Arena, then becomes afraid of his own courage and is crushed by the title hamsters from Munich. After eleven minutes, Leroy Sané hammered a ball well over the goal, there could have been more.

The game ends with Bayer’s first counterattack

Possibly even the preliminary decision, as Tuchel later judged: “It was a good first 20 minutes, I don’t know whether we felt on the pitch that we could actually close the bag.” But as soon as the 20th minute was over, the situation on the pitch changed for the first time. And no one really understood why. Bayern had everything under control. Because Upamecano in particular deregistered the Bundesliga’s new storm phenomenon, the Nigerian Victor Boniface – who moved from Royale Union Saint Gilloise to the Werkself for a good 20 million euros this season. The Frenchman won the duel between the beefy giants in an impressive way. But then Bayer countered for the first time. The pass from DFB hopeful Florian Wirtz to Boniface was still too long and the strong right-back Konrad Laimer intervened in time. And yet that first attempt changed everything.

Bayer became brave, a ball from Jonas Hofmann rushed through the penalty area, everyone missed (23′). A minute later, Álex Grimaldo spectacularly smashed a free kick into the top corner. What a goal! Müller had previously fouled the Spaniard. What Müller thought was a clear wrong decision and Tuchel subsequently received a yellow card for complaining. Grimaldo didn’t care, he took his measurements and scored. Suddenly Bayern faltered. Wirtz and Boniface played dizzy at times, and Upamecano also increasingly didn’t know what was happening. The striker missed once with a promising shot, and once he scored but was offside.

Then Bayern again. And again no one understood why things turned sour. Müller and Serge Gnabry missed a double chance because goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký had an outstanding evening and Jonathan Tah pulled out his leg in time (35′). Afterwards, Boniface greets again, he fools Upamecano and two other Bayern defenders, he makes his way through with elegant movements, but his shot is just deflected by Min-Jae Kim (41′). Breather? No. Hrádecký parries against the strong Sané (43rd) and the very conspicuous Goretzka (44th). In stoppage time, the somewhat surprised Gnabry headed just wide.

Tuchel explains Kimmich’s substitution

The pace of the first 45 minutes was unsustainable for both teams after the break. But when it hits, it really does. Boniface sees that Sven Ulreich is too far in front of his goal and hits it from the halfway line, the ball sinks onto the roof of the goal (52′). In the 57th minute, superstar Kane failed at the toe of the outstandingly reacting Bayer titan. He doesn’t know when the Englishman last left something like that lying around. Four minutes later, Müller and Joshua Kimmich had to leave the field. A strange scene occurs. Müller hands his colleague the captain’s armband before he is given the signal to substitute. She moves on to Goretzka’s arm. Kimmich doesn’t seem happy about the moment. Tuchel later explained his decision as follows: “The medical requirement was clearly 60 minutes – we stuck to that. Of course, Josh always wants to stick to it. But 60 minutes was the doctor’s maximum.”

Short respite, nobody wants to make the crucial mistake. The next highlight after 78 minutes. Again it’s Boniface and Wirtz who make life difficult for Bayern, but the German international only hits the post. Then twice more the Nigerian, against whom Upamecano again has no access in this phase. Ulreich is there once, the other time the ball flies high past the goal. Bayer presses and pushes, but Bayern scores the goal. Substitute Mathys Tel takes a fine solo shot on the left flank and passes perfectly to Goretzka, who can push in unchallenged in the penalty area. The decision? The Bayern stars storming wildly onto the field attack the captain, especially Kimmich. Then Boniface again, over it.

And when everything finally seems to have been decided, when stoppage time is almost over, Hofmann falls in the penalty area. He had been touched by Alphonso Davies. Daniel Schlager doesn’t whistle at first, then the VAR informs him that there was something there. He looks at the pictures and quickly decides on a penalty. Exequiel Palacios steps up and scores, Ulreich’s turn, but the penalty shot was very good, 2-2. And plenty of outrage. Assistant coach Zsolt Löw sees red after the final whistle. Müller and Tuchel are outraged at DAZN. “We still play a contact sport,” said Müller. “Sure, you can whistle, you’ll find arguments for it, but he’s very soft.” Tuchel complained: “It’s far too little for the VAR to intervene.”

“We’ve never been so good here”

A completely different question was much more exciting after the 90 plus X minutes played: Does FC Bayern have a serious title rival in Bayer Leverkusen? “I think so,” Bayer’s midfield boss Granit Xhaka answered confidently on DAZN. But it is “still very early to talk big. We have to keep both feet on the ground.” However, Tuchel did not want to philosophize about the question of questions. “I don’t have a clever answer to that. It’s a marathon.” Rather, he is once again concerned with why his footballers are so fickle. “We have to become more stable and grippy overall. We have room for improvement. It’s a bit of a trough. His team is having a hard time maintaining compactness.”

This evening in Munich was reminiscent of one twelve years ago in its intensity and courageous conviction. At that time, Borussia Dortmund won 3-1 in the arena. With a strong pace setter Nuri Sahin and a striker Lucas Barrios, the young Black and Yellows set out to conquer the Bundesliga that season. It was a completely different kind of football, full carrot, heavy metal. But the league may have witnessed the birth of a new, a great challenger this Friday. Hradecky said they had “passed the toughest test of endurance”: “We’ve never been so good here. Bayern were a bit scared of us.” But Bayer coach Xabi Alonso warned against too much euphoria: “May is far away. It would be a mistake to think about that. The only thing that matters is the next game.”