Munich (dpa) – After goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s bitter red debut, defending champion Bayer Leverkusen coldly shot FC Bayern out of the DFB Cup. The Munich team, who dominated a poisonous round of 16 battle when they were outnumbered for a long time, suffered the most serious defeat in coach Vincent Kompany’s young term in office with a 0-1 (0-0). For the fifth time in a row, the record winner failed prematurely in the cup competition.
Neuer was served after the red card and the bitter cup knockout. “The sending off hurt, of course,” Neuer told the TV channel Sky and described the decisive scene against Jeremie Frimpong: “He runs into me and tries to accept it gratefully. In the end it’s okay. I was also hoping it was an offside situation. In the end you are powerless and have to accept what is decided.”
Leverkusen’s joker Nathan Tella silenced most of the 75,000 spectators with his header goal in the 69th minute a few minutes after he came on. “It hurts now, everyone in the dressing room is upset. You can learn a lot from some defeats, we have to do that now, even if it hurts,” said Bayern sports director Max Eberl.
In his third professional game for Bayern, Israeli national goalkeeper Daniel Peretz, who came on as a substitute for Neuer, had no chance of defending against the unchallenged header of Bayer professional Tella, who is only 1.73 meters tall. «It was very important that we won. The team played well, worked hard,” said match winner Tella on ARD, and Leverkusen’s national defender Jonathan Tah added: “That feels good. We knew what was coming. We’ve made it as effective as possible for the most part. It wasn’t our best game.”
Neuer’s first dismissal causes a heated duel
Neuer’s first dismissal in his 867th game in professional football was the early starting signal in the 17th minute for a heated and exciting meeting of giants between the record winners from Munich and the double winners from the Rhine.
After a long ball from Tah, the 38-year-old Neuer stopped the onrushing Frimpong with a body check outside the penalty area. Referee Harm Osmers showed red. There was nothing to discuss about the expulsion, which was “undisputed, albeit unfortunate” for national coach Julian Nagelsmann.
Dejected, the long-time national goalkeeper ducked into the dressing room. In Neuer’s absence, things got hot-blooded not only on the pitch with a number of duels and nicks, but also between the dugouts.
Leverkusen’s master coach Xabi Alonso, who played for Bayern from 2014 to 2017, pushed his team with wild gesticulations. Bayern coach Vincent Kompany was also hot on the sidelines, but Osmars was able to calm him down a bit in the meantime. After the break, the referee from Hanover showed the short-tempered Munich sports director Christoph Freund yellow. A complaining hothead was also warned on the Leverkusen bench.
Nagelsmann praises the Munich team
During the break, Nagelsmann stated on the ARD microphone that he liked Bayern’s performance when they were outnumbered “almost better than when they were equal.” The injured Bayern super striker Harry Kane, who was sitting in the audience in a thick black jacket and a cap, had already started to celebrate the goal when he received headers from Kingsley Coman (34th), Leon Goretzka (43rd) and Minjae Kim (45th + 4). On the other hand, Florian Wirtz had a great chance – against Neuer (11th). The Israeli Peretz then saved with his foot against Frimpong (32nd).
Overall, the Leverkusen game was too cold for a long time with the majority. Wirtz repeatedly tried to give the attacks structure, but also dived. His congenial DFB colleague Jamal Musiala in the Bayern jersey was wanted even more than usual in Kane’s absence. The guests’ dense defensive line disrupted the 21-year-old early and physically.
Send in, send out
After the break, Alonso brought in the in-form striker Patrik Schick. The Czech, who had scored four goals in the last six competitive games, had to go down again less than fifteen minutes later with a calf injury. Without the top strikers, both teams were missing their target players for a long time, with Tella, who had recently been substituted, becoming one of them.
In an effort to equalize, Bayern midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic made his comeback much earlier than expected after breaking his collarbone. The bottom line was FC Bayern’s first round of 16 defeat since December 2006.
