Only 1:1 in the game top – FC Bayern convinced, but won against Leverkusen

Can Vincent Kompany also play at the top level? The performance says: Absolutely! The result: Well! FC Bayern Munich had to be content with a 1-1 draw in the top game on matchday 5 despite clearly superior proportions of the game. Our analysis.

Bayern got off to a great start to the season, but for weeks the focus had become more and more rigid on Leverkusen and in the weeks that followed, the war began with duels against Aston Villa and VfB Stuttgart. Vincent Kompany completely avoided any rotation and brought in the expected starting eleven with Gnabry instead of Coman, Pavlović instead of Palhinha and the secret, quietly recovered Alphonso Davies. Why rotate when you’ve just had a seven-day break?

Bayer Leverkusen also brought the 3-4-3 formation that was expected in all respects. The times of the last second half of the season, when both coaches at the time were still wildly adapting to each other, were over.

FC Bayern Munich: The course of the game

Bayern started the game with the broad chest of the last few weeks, pressed outstandingly, collected possession, and was the more dominant, much better team.

It was only logical that Leverkusen took the lead with their first chance after just over half an hour. Pavlović played perhaps the weakest pass of his still young professional career, put a back pass into the goal, then what had to happen happened: the ball went into the backcourt to Robert Andrich, who concealed the shot into the far corner. Manuel Neuer was only able to react late and had to expect a deflection that wasn’t imminent.

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Pavlović didn’t let himself get down and made up for his mistake with a goal-of-the-month long shot.

The second half started with a bang, but Serge Gnabry was unable to capitalize on his double great chance. Otherwise everything remained the same: Bayern were clearly the team that dominated the game, Leverkusen were happy with the score. Although Bayern tried again and again, the second goal was not scored. They had to be satisfied with a 1-1 draw in the end.

FC Bayern: Three things that come up

5:0, 9:2, 6:1, Bayern’s last few weeks were outstanding. But the opponents were only called Bremen, Zagreb, Kiel, Freiburg, Wolfsburg. Every cheer and every praise was done behind the scenes; first, Kompany’s Bavarians still had to pass the test of fire. That came today and overall, despite the loss of points, a positive testimonial can be given: Bayern’s pressing was really effective, Leverkusen couldn’t breathe at all, in the middle of the first half Bayern’s time needed to regain possession of the ball was an average of under 13 seconds, Leverkusen needed twice as much much. The German champions were unable to play through their game at all and managed two shots in the entire game with a total of 0.07 to 0.14 expected goals, depending on the service provider.

In addition to the great pressing, a clean positional game followed, in which Guerreiro was particularly sought today, as he constantly dribbled into the center (and his movements were reminiscent of Arjen Robben). However, what was obviously deliberately scaled back today was the intentional chaos in the movement sequences. This time Kimmich didn’t switch between six, right-back and half-forward within a minute, Davies wasn’t suddenly the front attacker and the Portuguese right-back was drawn to the center, but he wasn’t occasionally found in the left half-space at the same time.

It was clear from the game that the Kompany-Marić coaching team was also happy with the singular point, even though they were the better team. The ultimate risk was avoided, which is perhaps why organized chaos was missing.

An old football saying goes: The more unnecessary the corner, the more likely the goal is. Football history is full of strange stories. Paper balls, bad assumptions and of course: bad passes. The Munich homegrown player, who is actually so confident on the ball, has never played a worse back pass in the professional field. And so it happened as it had to happen: Leverkusen’s only corner in the first half led to Leverkusen’s only shot, leading to Leverkusen’s only goal. Leverkusen collected a measly 0.04 expected goals in the first half. All from this shot. But sometimes that’s enough.

Meanwhile, Aleksandar Pavlović didn’t let himself get down and came back with another cliche: If a defensive player concedes a goal, he is even more likely to make up for it with a goal. Commentators always shout the tired “Of all things!”, but it is one of the absolute classics of the game, as it is often confirmed.

Pavlović made up for it with an outstanding Sunday (or rather: Saturday) shot. From 30 meters he volleyed a ball with his instep and also brought a lot of outside instep with him. Hrádecký got to it again, but couldn’t stop it. Did Xabi Alonso secretly smile? The Allianz Arena had already seen an almost identical goal once: On August 26, 2016, on the first matchday, Carlo Ancelotti’s Alonso stopped a ball that had actually been cleared and chased it into the corner almost exactly like Pavlović did .

One thing has to be said: The shaky candidates were convincing today. Alphonso Davies is often viewed a little too critically. Bad games are often made into miserable ones, good ones into poor ones. Today he was great and showed in a top game how much he can give this team. No dropouts in the passing game, attentive when approaching the spaces and no easy loss in duels. As a reward, it was not he who was replaced, but his (also good) full-back when Kompany tried to bring in Laimer with a right-footer in the final minutes. Davies underlined the great performance by immediately showing a great fighting spirit and turning a safe throw-in for Leverkusen into a ball win for his own team with a tackle on the opponent.

For Dayot Upamecano, the question marks were big not only before the game, but also during it. When he was warned early on by the poor referee, alarm bells rang for quite a few people. Dark memories of unnecessary space began to surface, especially since he was now dealing with the colossus Boniface. However, Upamecano didn’t let himself be deterred and didn’t even come close to being sent off, so this topic is ticked off and we can instead look at his great overall game: This “colossus” wasn’t what he was today at all. Kim, but especially Upamecano, reported Boniface and the Leverkusen offensive forces completely.

Kompany-Bayern actually seemed to have gaps in defense in recent weeks, but even Leverkusen couldn’t uncover them at all. Normally you don’t concede a goal today.

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Goals: 0:1 Andrich (31st), 1:1 Pavlović (39th)Yellow cards: Upamecano (23rd), Alonso (24th), Andrich (33rd), Wirtz (57th), Grimaldo (71st)Lineup FC Bayern Munich: Neuer – Guerreiro (Laimer, 78th), Upamecano, Kim, Davies – Kimmich, Pavlović, Olise (Sané, 78th), Musiala, Gnabry (Coman, 65th) – Kane (Müller, 86th)Lineup Bayern 04 Leverkusen: Hrádecký – Tapsoba, Tah, Hincapie – Frimpong, Xhaka, Andrich, Grimaldo (Belocian, 90th), Terrier (Adli, 58th), Wirtz (Palacios, 90th) – Boniface (Tella, 78th)

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