Bundesliga: Deceptive hope: Bayern’s wobblers in the “madness game”

FC Bayern is not untouchable either.

But the actually unbelievable 1:1 (0:1) after a rousing football show over 97 minutes including a second helping hand in Munich’s top game against problem opponents Borussia Mönchengladbach could ultimately only be a deceptive hope for a little more excitement in the Bundesliga title race in the special World Cup – be season. A late goal by the very committed and conspicuous national player Leroy Sané as far too small a result of a firework of over 30 Bayern degrees at the end, that seemed almost surreal on Saturday in the seething Allianz Arena – just like the very strong performance by Yann Sommer in Gladbach Goal.

19 parades on the big summer evening! This league record since such data collection began in 1992 brought the Bayern offensive around Sadio Mané, to whom the video assistant also proved two offside goals, to the brink of their first defeat of the season. But not to despair – or to surrender. “We never accepted losing the game,” said Bayern midfield boss Joshua Kimmich.

Nagelsmann quarrels

“You can take a week off,” said Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann after the final whistle, annoyed and at the same time impressed by the splendid summer. The Bayern coach was annoyed with the referee, also quarreled with the exploitation of chances, but not even with the playful presentation of his team.

Nagelsmann spoke rather of the “best performance of the season” and said: “We had 35 shots on goal, that should be enough for three points in the next games.” In the end he even threw defender Matthijs de Ligt into the fray as a joker in the center forward position to somehow force the winning goal. But de Ligt also failed in added time with a powerful volley on jack-of-all-trades Sommer. “Keep going like this and we’ll score a lot of goals,” was Nagelsmann’s conclusion after Bayern’s first mini wobble.

“We wanted to score goals, it wasn’t a larifari,” said Thomas Müller about the lack of effectiveness this time. “You need luck with Bayern, who are shooting away and destroying everything at the moment,” said Gladbach’s Christoph Kramer. Sports director Hasan Salihamidzic accepted the result. He enjoyed “an amazing game for the spectators. I think everyone enjoyed this game.”

Summer in the “flow”

FC Bayern also sees itself as an entertainment company, and the lack of title excitement has to be replaced by spectacular football in everyday league life. “If we take the energy with us, I’ll be happy,” said Salihamidzic with a view to the English weeks that are now beginning and the most important competition for Germany’s top club – the Champions League. The Bayern stars didn’t open the evening with self-doubt. “When we’re in that mood, there won’t be many opponents who have a nice afternoon against us,” said attacker Müller.

That’s how Gladbach saw it with their mixture of summer, passion, luck and the hard-nosed attacker Marcus Thuram, who resolutely punished a blackout by Bayern defender Dayot Upamecano with Borussia’s opening goal. “It was a tough game for us,” said Bayern specialist Sommer, who kept himself “in such a flow”.

“Bayern aren’t enraptured yet, it’s only the fourth day of the game,” said Sommer about Bayern’s superiority in this game they didn’t win: “They’re in incredible shape. They put on a lot of pressure over 90 minutes, have a lot of power, A lot of quality on the ball, they are very variable in the game. It’s difficult to score against them.” Gladbach passed this “big challenge”.

“You have at least seen how you can annoy Bayern,” said Gladbach’s sporting director Roland Virkus. Next, Union Berlin can try as a Bayern stopper. Because in the capital there will be the next top game first (Bayern) against second (Union) on Saturday. “A lot of people didn’t expect that,” said Müller about the surprising top game of the fifth day of the game and added: “Union plays their own style. You don’t like playing against them all that much.”