FC Bayern miss out on victory in the home game against Real Madrid. FCBinside provides three insights into the match.
FC Bayern drew 2-2 with Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. The match against the Whites provided the following insights.
1. There was more in it!
The draw at the Allianz Arena means that the clash with Real Madrid is now practically back to square one. Bayern missed out on travelling to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on Wednesday with a win in their luggage. There was more in it in the first leg!
Bayern had pinned their hopes on home advantage in the run-up to the game. With their own fans behind them, they wanted to get ahead. The club had even issued an appeal for all supporters to wear red. The hope: to impress Real with the atmosphere in the Munich Arena. The atmosphere was fantastic, starting with the fans loudly welcoming the FCB bus outside the stadium. In the arena, there was a goosebump choreography in honour of Franz Beckenbauer and then consistently strong support from the stands. The players were delighted afterwards, with Harry Kane even calling it one of the „favourite games of my entire career“.
With the fans behind them, Bayern put in a strong opening quarter of an hour, but were unable to score. After falling behind out of nowhere through Vinicius Jr, coach Thomas Tuchel’s team came back furiously in the second half with a double strike – but then failed to seal the deal despite further chances. Real’s late penalty equaliser ultimately ensured a draw in a European Cup match in which Bayern deserved to win.
2. Kim causes chaos
The main reason why Bayern did not travel to Madrid with a win was the sobering performance of Minjae Kim.
When he conceded the first goal, he allowed Vinicius Jr. to pull him far too far out of defence and then clearly took him by surprise too easily with a simple feint. It’s probably not even that easy for the Real Brazilian in training. The difference in speed between Kim and Vinicius Jr. before the finish was also staggering.
As was the culpability of the penalty before the 2-0 when the South Korean clumsily clipped Rodrygo in the penalty area. A centre-back who acts wildly in the most important games? You can’t help but think of Dayot Upamecano at Bayern! Now Kim is the next chaos candidate.
You simply can’t afford a performance like that in a Champions League semi-final. In general, Kim’s personnel must be scrutinised: Brought from Napoli as a „monster“, the 27-year-old often acts more like a nice defence mascot. In any case, Real’s attacking stars had no respect for Kim.
For 50 million, Kim was anything but a bargain. A bad investment so far. At the beginning of his time in Munich, he still had to do military service in his home country, in winter he travelled to the Asian Cup and has looked completely overplayed since then.
If Kim doesn’t get his act together very quickly, he will be the number one candidate for sale after his first year at FCB.
3. Laimer plays (and fights) hard
The absolute contrast to Kim’s performance was provided by another player who only joined Bayern this season: Konrad Laimer impressed across the board in defensive midfield against Real.
In the most important game so far, he probably put in his best performance in a Bayern shirt.
Strong passes in the build-up plus consistent, aggressive tackling. Sometimes it gets rustic, but you have to hurt opponents like Real sometimes. „In a semi-final like this, there’s not as much whistling as in a normal Bundesliga game – which I also enjoy,“ the Austrian revealed with a smile after the match.
If Laimer keeps playing like this, Bayern might not have to worry too much about a new centre midfielder in the future. If Laimer’s old companion Ralf Rangnick from his Red Bull days and his current national team coach become Bayern coach at the same time, Laimer’s future at FCB could look bright.