Bavaria's last squad is subject to Gladbach: harbingers of chaos

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Julian Nagelsmann replaces the youngsters Lucas Copado and Paul Wanner

Photo: Sebastian Widmann / Getty Images

The symbol of the game:

The last secret weapon of the great FC Bayern Munich was a boy who had only been allowed to buy a wheat beer for himself two weeks ago: 15 minutes before the end of the game, Julian Nagelsmann brought not only 17-year-old Lucas Copado, but also Paul Wanner into the game . The youngster had celebrated his 16th birthday the day before Christmas Eve. A sign of appreciation for the "great talent", whose Bundesliga debut Nagelsmann had already indicated before the game and who was immortalized as the second youngest player in league history behind Dortmund's Youssoufa Moukoko. And a sign that nine corona cases have left their mark on the Bayern squad: Seasoned first division professionals weren't even on the bench, and youngster Malik Tillman had to help out in the starting eleven.

The result:

It was 1: 2 (1: 2) for Bayern at home against previously crisis-ridden Gladbachers, here is the match report. Munich will be able to get over it, in the worst case scenario they will lead the Bundesliga table with a six point lead after this match day.

Revenge would have been sweet:

Nagelsmann did not have to experience many low points in his first six months as a Bayern coach: The Bundesliga champions dominated the Bundesliga at will, in the group stage of the Champions League it looked no different. Only the flaw of the 0: 5 disgrace in the cup in Gladbach stains the otherwise so white vest of Bavaria. That annoyed the perfectionist Nagelsmann, who spoke in advance of having "slight thoughts of revenge" with him. The fact that there was hardly a whole eleven available to make amends was "relatively bumpy" for him - but the attempt to achieve the usual sovereignty would not succeed in view of the rump troop.

The first half: For

20, 25 minutes it went off pretty well.

Bayern's line-up looked as if a sports editorial team had tried to cram as many offensive players as possible into an "eleven of the matchday" - including Marcel Sabitzer as a left-back.

Gladbach, however, underwent a lot of slight ball losses, Robert Lewandowski shook off Nico Elvedi early and took the lead (18th minute).

But then Bayern lost their line, conceded the equalizer through Florian Neuhaus (27th), watched Stefan Lainer as he turned the game with a header (31st).

Winners among losers:

The signs in Gladbach were almost reversed: in the series, almost everything went wrong for the club, which actually sees itself as a candidate for the European Cup. On the first day of the second half of the season, the foals were 14th, three points ahead of a direct relegation rank. Florian Neuhaus had involuntarily become a face of misery: The national player is considered one of the stars in Adi Hütter's team, but recently made a lot of mistakes and in the meantime even had to fight for his regular place. With his volley to equalize, Neuhaus now worked against the trend. Incidentally, the Gladbacher got the hit from another first half loser: Joshua Kimmich, recovered from Corona and halfway recovered, made his comeback as a substitute right-back - and introduced himself with an unsuccessful attempt at clarification.

The second half:

It wasn't that the Bavarian B-Elf hadn't tried. But the corona outbreak was accompanied by a lack of luck and a Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who was outstanding in the Munich snowstorm: Jamal Musiala's attempt steered Sommer over the crossbar (56th), Thomas Müller, who shouted his disappointment loudly in the night sky, aimed short distance much too central (58th) And Lewandowski, already failed at the post shortly before the break whistle, put a crooked thing on the crossbar (62nd). Then Bayern lacked the strength for a final offensive, especially the full-backs were "mouse dead" after a long break, said Nagelsmann later.

Displeasure through nonsense:

The fact that the game took place at all given the Bavarian personnel situation had its origins in the DFL regulations. And one could understand Oliver Kahn, who had suggested to the league association before the start of the game to "take another look at it and revise it": 16 ready-to-play players in the professional squad of a team are enough for the DFL to whistle a game instead of, as suggested by Bayern, to embarrassed. Injured and banned players, however, "typical for sports" - that is, professionals who are not ready for a mission - are also considered ready for action. Judging by the internal logic of the corresponding DFL passage, FCB's displeasure was still quite mild.

It should affect everyone:

The league's motto can be summarized with another, somewhat outdated Kahn quote: Further, always further.

The second half of the season starts right in the middle of the Omikron wave, and Bayern may be an extreme example, but they are by no means the only club with acute corona worries.

Substitute benches with youth players, strange lineups and weakness after two thirds of a game should become the rule - the sporting value of such a chaos would be at least questionable.