The Champions League anthem echoed through the empty stadium of Atlético Madrid, it didn’t exactly sound graceful, but it was still a precious, unforgettable moment for at least two footballers on the pitch: Jamal Musiala and Bright Arrey-Mbi, both 17 years old , played for FC Bayern on Tuesday evening from the start, Musiala for the first time internationally, Arrey-Mbi for the first time ever. And that said a lot about the encounter, in which the defending champion scored 1-1 due to the late equalization with a penalty from Thomas Müller; a result that coach Hansi Flick said afterwards that he was “very satisfied”.
For Munich, the game was no longer the celebratory occasion that a meeting of two well-known clubs sounds like. The Munich team had already qualified for the round of 16 as a certain group first in the previous week. Flick spoke of an “insane challenge” beforehand. However, Manuel Neuer, Leon Goretzka and Robert Lewandowski did not even fly to Madrid for this challenge. Neuer was quoted on the club’s website with the statement that it was important “that you can go down. Especially with the mammoth program of the last few weeks and months it is noticeable that it is difficult to take breaks”. The program foresees the likely challenging duel with second table RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Alexander Nübel was in goal for Neuer, for the second time since his move from FC Schalke 04 in the summer and for the first time since the 3-0 win in the first round of the DFB Cup against the fifth division club FC Düren. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting started in the attack, Musiala in midfield and Arrey-Mbi in defense. FC Bayern signed both of them from Chelsea’s youth team in the summer of 2019.
Overall, Hansi Flick changed the team to nine positions compared to the 3-1 win against VfB Stuttgart last Saturday, and Müller was initially on the bench. “It’s not like I’m throwing the dice. I take the current situation into account,” said the coach in an interview with Sky before the game. Flick also changed the system to secure the personnel changes: David Alaba played as captain in the middle of a chain of three central defenders; Arrey-Mbi, actually a central defender, acted as the left full-back.
It was not until the 26th minute that the unusual thing about this new system was revealed. Up until then, the Munich team had played offensively, often through the strikingly agile, courageous and skillful Musiala in the Müller position, who was often substituted in the Bundesliga. But then a throw-in from Madrid was enough to tear a gap on the defensive between left central defender Lucas Hernández and Arrey-Mbi, in which Marcos Llorente sprinted to the baseline and replaced João Felix, who scored 1-0. Niklas Süle couldn’t follow him.
Until the break, the Munich team made it less and less to get in front of the opposing goal. A chance from Musiala after half an hour, when he dribbled into the final position and shot at the side netting from a distance, remained the only one for a long time. It was Musiala, whose good performance Flick highlighted after the game when asked about the Munich talents.
In the meantime, Madrid pulled back a long way, as is the notorious way of coach Diego Simeone’s team, but still kept Bayern far enough away from their own goal. Leroy Sané, probably the most prominent Munich offensive player in the starting line-up, could not change that much. The national player is currently only a substitute in the important games, on Tuesday he missed a good closing opportunity from the edge of the box with a shot far over the crossbar. In some scenes he dutifully participated in the defensive game, which Flick had recently demanded from him – but sometimes he missed this commitment again.
Only after an hour, when it became very quiet on the lawn even for the sensitive TV microphones, did Flick Müller – the loudest man from Munich; Arrey-Mbi was among those who were replaced.
But it was still an evening of experiments: Through various changes after an hour, Sané found himself in a kind of left full-back position, as if to test his defensive skills, previously instructed by Flick. For a few minutes, Müller let himself fall so deep in the build-up of the game that it should hardly happen again. A few minutes later, Flick brought in Angelo Stiller, 19, the next boy – and switched to a back four system.
Müller, whose substitution brought “more dynamism to the front”, as Flick praised, was therefore far ahead again when he was fouled in the penalty area, stepped up himself and equalized in the 86th minute. Müller was very happy about it. Perhaps because he knew that this should not happen anytime soon: Robert Lewandowski is known to shoot the penalty at Bayern.
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