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FC Bayern Munich in the Champions League: The neverending era

2021-09-15T06:32:05.009Z


FC Bayern opened the international season at FC Barcelona with a statement. After just a few weeks, coach Nagelsmann made visible progress with the team - which could lead us far.


Enlarge image

Robert Lewandowski (center) celebrating the goal to make it 3-0

Photo:

Sven Hoppe / dpa

After the last goal you could even hear "FCB rules here" from high up in the Camp Nou;

What was meant was the one from Munich.

In times of the pandemic, only a few Bavarian bunch dared to play in the Champions League in Barcelona.

Meanwhile, the supporters of the home team threw a soccer ball from the lower ring to the middle ring and upper ring and back again, and soon half the stadium shouted "olé" with every successful throw.

They now demonstratively ignored what was happening on the lawn.

As epochal games as there were between these two clubs - most recently an 8: 2 - this was so bland.

But that was neither the fault nor the problem of Bayern, who were in a class better in everything, really everything in their effortless 3-0 (1-0).

The red machine - in white jerseys that evening - was unwinding its workload.

The football that she has studied and refined for years.

Modern, smart football, pressing, almost ideal room allocation, luring opponents and crushing opponents, reducing the pace and increasing the pace, with good communication on the pitch, with curiosity about one's own attack moves and with this fascinating quality, apparently all players in and on at will to be able to bring the penalty area.

It could also have been a game in Malmö, Stuttgart or Bielefeld: this victory looked so routine.

Even the audience of the Catalan crisis club conformed to the pattern: until they stopped short before the end, they cheered every successful ball relay and every won duel of the underdog.

But because neither a one-third full Camp Nou is suitable for a cauldron, nor the rather low-testosterone Barça-Elf for a rebellion, this Bayern victory seemed particularly clean.

This time, too, it could have been higher if they had really wanted to.

Nagelsmann's international Bayern debut

So it stayed classic.

Once a miller.

Lewandowski twice.

They will also help shape this Champions League season.

As always.

And yet, there was already something new.

It was Bayern's first European Cup game under Julian Nagelsmann, who was able to sum up the personal aspect of his international debut outside of Hoffenheim and Leipzig in a relaxed manner: “This is my first time at a club that is not an outsider in the Champions League, but is supposed to win.

And that's what we did. "

Notoriously precocious, the man from Ammersee not only quickly understood, like few Bayern coaches, where he has landed.

But apparently also found the right level of interventionism.

Adapted to the overall leisurely game, without hectic and only sporadically, but then purposefully, he corrected his team.

Just like shortly after the 1-0 win, when he lively debated on the sideline with Müller, whom he later compared to a "playing assistant coach": "He's very intelligent, tries to pass things on and has no airs at all," said Nagelsmann , who named the Müller and Lewandowski as an example of his own development: "It's exciting to work with world stars."

“It's exciting to work with world stars”.

Julian Nagelsmann about his team

Not a single shot at Neuer's goal

Polishing your details, making this excellent, organically grown team even better - that is probably the goal.

Anything else would be insane or over-the-top.

But Nagelsmann will persistently pursue the perfecting, he is known for that and for that they finally brought him.

The current progress is remarkable.

In Barcelona they expressed themselves in an almost perfect defense that did not allow a single shot between the three bars.

The defense wins big tournaments.

The defense cost Bayern the chance to defend their title last year with three goals against Paris at home.

Nagelsmann was particularly fond of talking about the defense after the match in Barcelona.

About the "greed to eat up your opponent's strikers and not get a goal."

Bayern doubled and tripped the most dangerous Barça player Memphis Depay when he came close to the ball.

They defended well and yet only allowed a few advances in their backs, with Dayot Upamecano in particular always on hand.

The troubled Post-Messi-Barça, especially with current injury problems in the storm, is certainly not the ultimate yardstick.

Barcelona was not a yardstick this time

But the game at Camp Nou provided an idea that Nagelsmanns Bayern could possibly fix their problem area with a mixture of even better game control and even more aggressive covering behavior.

Whereby, problem area?

When Memphis got past two Bavarians with a nice deception in the first half, left-back Alphonso Davis casually took the ball from him.

And Davis is the man who has been criticized the most for his defensive behavior.

So luxury problems, at least from the point of view of a club like Barcelona.

After Lewandowski had sent him to the ground with a deception before the 3-0 draw, Barça's defense veteran Gerard Piqué remained depressed for a longer time.

In eight career games against Munich since 2009, the central defender has conceded 21 goals.

Evidence from a Bayern era that seems ever more infinite, only experienced small dents even during upheavals, which should soon announce the next continuity customer with the extension of Leon Goretzka's contract, which coach Nagelsmann has easily integrated and is happy to be further inspired by him.

An era that could have particularly good prospects for the Champions League this season.

You will see that in the spring, when the Munich team is really challenged.

Your opponents on Tuesday clapped humbly after the final whistle.

Even the whole of Malmö or Bielefeld: At least not lost any more clearly.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-09-15

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