On Saturday evening, Bayern Munich faced Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. It was the biggest game of the weekend in the Bundesliga since both teams are competing for the title.
For the task at hand, Vincent Kompany opted for the following lineup:
Neuer – Laimer, Upamecano, Kim, Ito – Kimmich, Pavlovic – Olise, Musiala, Coman – Kane.
After 18 minutes, a through ball was played to Nathan Tella, but a block by Kim Min-jae took the sting out of the effort, and it caused no issues in the end.
The hosts were growing in the game and troubling Die Roten. Florian Wirtz went on a solo run into the box in the 21st minute, seeing his effort saved from a tight angle. Jeremie Frimpong had a header hit the bar in the follow-up of Wirtz’s attempt and the ball was eventually cleared to safety by Hiroki Ito.
Three minutes later, they hit the bar again. A superb Piero Hincapie cross was met by Tella, whose effort hit the bar and went behind. The first half saw Bayern struggling to create chances and they went into the break with zero shots.
The second half also saw the defending champions thoroughly dominating Rekordmeirts.Just before the hour mark, Bayer Leverkusen again went close to taking the lead, but Tella’s hooked finish went wide of Neuer’s post. After 66 minutes, the home side again had a huge chance, but a header off the line from Ito saved Bayern from going from behind on this occasion.
Kompany made four changes after seeing Leverkusen dominate the proceedings. Josip Stanisic, Leon Goretzka, Leroy Sane., and Serge Gnabry, replaced Ito, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Michael Olise, and Kingsley Coman.
With a little under ten minutes remaining, a cross from Sane was headed wide by Goretzka from a promising position in the box. Kompany decided to shut the shop in the final five minutes by replacing Jama Musiala with Sacha Boey.
In stoppage time, Neuer made a world-class save to deny Amine Adli, before Wirtz dragged the rebound wide from close range.
The visitors somehow managed to grind out a draw. Truth be told, a terrible game for neutrals. Leverkusen deserved to win — but so did Bayern in the game at Allianz Arena earlier this season. This was a must-not-lose game, and Bayern did not lose, taking another giant step towards regaining the title.
Just to finish things, a quick shoutout to Dayot Upamecano. On a day with so many poor individual performances, as well as a poor collective and tactical performance, he was the one player who seriously stepped up to the occasion. Kim was also pretty good second half.
Kompany will be pleased with the performance of defenders, but they will have to do much better in the coming weeks to go deep in the Champions League and win the Bundesliga.
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