The goal that Bayern feared came after 21 minutes of play. A long ball came flying out of the Feyenoord Rotterdam defense, it flew and flew and at some point reached the airspace above the Bayern defenders Min-jae Kim and Dayot Upamecano. Kim miscalculated when trying to catch the flying object; Upamecano had no chance. The ball flew straight into the path of Mexican attacker Santiago Gimenez, who skilfully took the ball and thundered it past Manuel Neuer into the goal.
As an opposing coach, you don’t have to be a tactical genius to figure out this move; the whole of Europe now knows that Bayern, who always advance far, are vulnerable in exactly this way. The penultimate preliminary round game of the current Champions League already experienced that in the early stages signature movewhich Bayern are not at all proud of. This 21st minute could definitely be described as the opening phase because the game had to be interrupted for a few minutes immediately after Bayern’s kick-off – various fireworks were set off in the rain over Rotterdam, completely obscuring the view. So it was in no way the beginning that Bayern had imagined, and that was true for the entire game in the end.
Stormy, highly superior, but far too hectic Munich team lost 3-0 to a merciless host, which actually makes the last matchday explosive from Bayern’s point of view, even if it was only against the 35th in the table. from Bratislava. Bayern will need a win and then have to hope that some other teams in this confusing table play in such a way that they end up with a place in the top eight. This is necessary in order to move straight into the round of 16 and avoid the playoffs. At the moment Bayern are: fifteenth. When was the last time they did that?
At first, Munich’s game looked like it was reminiscent of the great Louis van Gaal; it was possession football from the 1900s – controlled, but very wide and very horizontal. Bayern became dangerous as soon as they picked up the pace; Kingsley Coman (28th, 33rd) was twice denied by the Dutch national goalkeeper Justin Bijlow, who made a warm save in these minutes. Ten minutes later, after a dry shot from Harry Kane, the Munich team almost raised their arms in celebration, but again Bijlow’s arms were stronger.
-It was a strange game that Bayern played in the first half. Basically, they never found the consistently sharp rhythm with which they so often overwhelmed their opponents. At first they played too slow, then suddenly they switched to a power play mode, which is normally activated at least ten minutes before the end of the game. Even the regenerated Jamal Musiala barely managed to inspire Bayern’s game; he allowed himself to be carried away with a few violent dribbles with which he didn’t even get to Justin Bijlow.
And then it happened again: Bayern exerted so much pressure that in the end it was an invitation to counterattack again. Feyenoord raced boldly through the middle, and when the chasing Munich team had actually already cleared the scene, Raphael Guerreiro, who had just substituted for the muscle-stricken Alphonso Davies, made a completely unnecessary foul. Gimenez converted the penalty due deep into stoppage time (45th + 9), which was necessary because of the fireworks.
After the break, coach Vincent Kompany brought in offensive player Leroy Sané instead of right-back Konrad Laimer, and it was clear what that meant: Bayern were running. After Musiala’s assist, Kane was denied by Bijlow (54th), who was in increasingly unbelievable form: he also directed Musiala’s header (59th) from Kimmich’s cross over the crossbar with a great reflex. Bayern were now back in power play mode, Kompany replaced Kim with Pavlovic and sent Goretzka into defense, chances arose every minute (Kane 68th, Sané header on the post, 70th). But the only one who took advantage of a scoring opportunity was Rotterdam’s Ayase Ueda, who made it 3-0 after another counterattack (89′). Bayern lost three away games in the preliminary round and only won one, against Donetsk, at Schalke.
