LEIPZIG, Germany – In the late morning hours on a sunny Saturday, the impressive Baroque buildings that make up Leipzig’s city center welcomed a batch of locals who popped in and out of shops of their choice – and stopped in their tracks as they stumbled upon Bayern Munich’s team buses. Some slowed down as they strolled past, many took out their phones to take a picture, while others stopped outside with seven hours to go until kickoff against RB Leipzig.
Such is the oversized presence of Germany’s record champions that even as Leipzig started the game in impressive fashion, asserting control over the match in almost no time at all, that the other shoe felt destined to drop.
Leipzig were more than capable of inflicting damage on Bayern, Ole Werner’s side on track to finish inside the UEFA Champions League berths with half a season to go. Christoph Baumgartner’s shot in the third minute was a warning but Romulo’s attempt two minutes later established a pattern – the hosts could work around Bayern’s defense thanks to their trademark intense style. Yan Diomande, arguably the find of the Bundesliga season after Leipzig signed inexperienced 19-year-old from Leganes, was troubling Bayern left back Hiroki Ito and 20-year-old forward Antonio Nusa had more than his fair share of attempts on goal. Leipzig limited Bayern to their lowest expected goal tally in the first half of a Bundesliga match all season long with a tally of just 0.63, but there was just one problem. The hosts had not put their chances away, underperforming on the 2.03 expected goals they had generated along the way.
“First half was tough, to be honest,” Bayern’s Harry Kane said post-match. “We expected them to come out with a lot of energy, a lot of intensity and that’s exactly what happened. We just weren’t quite good enough with the ball. I felt that we gave a lot of balls away, which gave them momentum.”
It was the perfect set-up for a Bayern comeback that called back of their longstanding dominance, even as Vincent Kompany puts his own spin on things in his second season in charge of the team. Every single reminder of Bayern’s ability to perform was on clear display in the second half, even as Leipzig remained competitive with the score at 2-1 in the visitors’ favor heading into the final 10 minutes. Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane had Bayern ahead by the 70th minute, the form that makes them a contender for the Champions League title this season on full display.
“When a team likes to press like they do, sometimes I like to drop even into defensive areas to see if the center backs are fully committed to come all the way,” Kane said about the team’s style of play. “It takes a lot for teams to really commit that way and I think that’s why you sometimes see me in that kind of [No.] 6 position, that [No.] 8 position in the half-turn. In terms of in the final third, we don’t really play with an out-and-out [No.] 9. We almost play with two [No.] 10s with wingers who come attack inside. … The center backs, maybe they’re not quite sure to go in with me or to stay back.”
Then came the inarguable truths of Germany’s top flight. Kane, who is currently chasing the Bundesliga’s single season goalscoring record set by Robert Lewandowski when he scored 41 for Bayern during the 2020-21 campaign, is a cheat code in his own right. Kompany was able to bring Michael Olise into the game as a second half substitute, the France international putting on an impressive display with three assists and the final goal of the game. It is not exactly difficult to recall seasons where Bayern were second-best but year after year, the Bundesliga title is theirs to lose because of the financial and historical advantages that pave the way to build Germany’s greatest squad over and over again.
“Even when they went 2-1 up, we had some chances to come back into the game,” Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi said. “After the third goal, we just opened up and it was unnecessary and a bit disappointing from our side to concede another two because I thought for a majority of the game, we played a really strong game.”
Leipzig’s commitment to an attack-minded game plan was eventually their downfall, which eventually acted as a perfect invitation for Bayern.
“We lost a bit of control, our shape,” Gulacsi said. “We were maybe taking too much risks and this is a team that will punish you straight away on the counterattack and that’s what happened. We were not closing, we were not marking them enough for the last two goals and they really punished us.”
Leipzig, as a result, ended up on the wrong side of the Bayern Munich experience, feeling the brutal effects of the visitors’ unrelenting ability.
“It’s hard to keep your focus,” Leipzig goalscorer Romulo said about the game state after Kane’s go-ahead goal, “and then they push. They always push and they have top players so they get chances and they score five. It’s to not to turn off the mind.”
Even if Leipzig had quickly created a pattern of excellence in the first half, Bayern reverted to a familiar habit of their own to close out the game.
“We knew in the second half to be calm,” Kane said. “The spaces will open up as the game gets more stretched. The last 30 minutes, it’s happened a lot this season, and that’s exactly what happened. We took our moments when we needed to. Manu[el Neuer] made some incredible saves when we needed him, some good blocks from the center backs and then we just kind of grew into the game.”
Add Comment