AWhen Stephan Lehmann, FC Bayern Munich stadium announcer, announced the players who were about to play against FC Schalke 04 to the football fans in the arena this Saturday, the public prosecutor’s office should have moved in. They could potentially have spoken to almost 75,000 people in the arena who listened or watched as Lehmann announced the man with jersey number 25 there. And most likely, these people could have told them even more. Because this game was suspicious – and it became more and more suspicious in its first few minutes.
In the 10th minute, when the man with jersey number 25 dribbled the ball through the Schalke penalty area. In the 14th minute, when he shot the ball at the Schalke goal. And by the 21st minute at the latest, when he shot the ball into the Schalke goal, the public prosecutor’s office would probably have had enough evidence that all the judges in Munich had condemned this game.
The evidence was clear: this game was a Thomas Müller game.
„The one and only Thomas Müller“
What is a Thomas Müller game? This has been discussed (in the media) in Munich since coach Thomas Tuchel said before the first quarter-finals of the Champions League against Manchester City that this was “not a Thomas Müller game”. On Friday, Tuchel was asked about it again in the press conference. “Every game is a Thomas Müller game,” he replied – and hinted for the first time that his formulation in Manchester was a mistake: “Unfortunately, I opened the topic myself.” And at the moment he seemed like a coach , who knows that he will hardly be able to close this topic this season.
On Matchday 32, FC Bayern Munich won 6-0 against FC Schalke 04. And Müller, the man with jersey number 25, who was in the starting XI for the first time in three weeks, made it 1-0.
“The one and only Thomas Müller,” said stadium announcer Stephan Lehmann into his microphone afterwards. But it wasn’t just a Thomas Müller game. It was also a Joshua Kimmich game, who made it 2-0 with a penalty (29th minute). It was a Serge Gnabry game that made it 3-0 and 4-0 (50th and 65th). It was a Mathys-Tel game that made it 5-0 (80′). It was also a Noussair Mazraoui game that made it 6-0 (90+2).
Above all, it was a game that increased the likelihood of Tuchel and Munich becoming champions. If they win against Leipzig and Cologne, they will definitely stay ahead of Borussia Dortmund.
Schalke coach Thomas Reis now has to score points with Schalke in the last two games.
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Image: dpa
It was – it should also be mentioned – a game that revealed why Schalke could be relegated from the Bundesliga. His team “played faster, played more fluently,” said Thomas Tuchel later. But she was able to play faster and more fluently because her opponents allowed it. And sometimes they made it even easier for Bayern. An example: The situation that led to the penalty only arose because Schalke’s Sepp van den Berg, who could have cleared the ball, stumbled in his own penalty area.
At the end of his working day, Thomas Tuchel naturally had to talk about Thomas Müller. It was a “very good performance”, he said and said with a view to the championship: “He has what matters: the necessary looseness, but also the absolute bite.” And when a reporter confronted Tuchel with the fact that Herbert Hainer On his way out of the arena, he had just described this Müller as “essential”, he replied: “If the President says so, the coach does not contradict.”
