DIdeally, the trip to Bielefeld should be a therapeutic Easter walk. For the champions and Bundesliga leaders FC Bayern Munich on Sunday it was not just about a silly Bundesliga victory in the penultimate table, but also about a respectable turnaround on the way back to the front after the shock of Tuesday evening with the sudden farewell to all dreams of the Champions League .
After all, the last and only valuable trophy this season is possibly the tenth championship in a row at the German football summit next Saturday with Dortmund Borussia, who have been subscribed to in second place for years. It would at least round off a chronic success story after the early end of the DFB Cup competition with a 0:5 defeat in Mönchengladbach and the late failure in the uninspired second leg of the premier class quarterfinals in seventh place in the Spanish league after the 0:1 in Villarreal and Chukwuezes Equalizing goal to make it 1-1 two minutes before the end. “You have to turn this sadness into enthusiasm,” was Nagelsmann’s postulate before the business trip to East Westphalia.
No sooner said than done in this duel between the team with the most goals (86) and most points (72) and the team with the fewest goals (23) and the second fewest points (26). Bayern did their duty, enriched by a few freestyle elements in the first half, and won 3 after Laursen’s own goal (10th minute), Gnabry’s goal (45’+7′) and the goal of the strikingly strong substitute Musiala (85′): 0 Bielefeld, on the other hand, extended their negative run to seven games without a win and only one draw, but showed themselves more courageous than last.
Nagelsmann satisfied, Kimmich quarrels
Julian Nagelsmann, the Bayern coach, was satisfied with the performance in Bielefeld. He even believed that his team could have been in the lead “4-0 after 15 minutes”. He also liked what followed after the early fireworks, “because at some point” the point was reached “to go to game control”. National player Joshua Kimmich was a bit more critical of game one after Tuesday’s disappointment: “The first half was quite good, the second half was a little slower.”
The self-critical Swabian, who started the 1-0 and 2-0 in Bielefeld, admitted he still hasn’t quite gotten over Bayern’s defeat by Villarreal, especially given his performances in both games against the Spaniards than was satisfied
Was challenged several times: Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the game against Bielefeld
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Image: AFP
The unequal duel on Easter Sunday began with a vehement phase of pressure from Bayern, the first peak of which was a header from Lewandowski, which smacked the crossbar, touched the post and was blocked by the usual strong goalkeeper Ortega (8th). A little later, however, Munich took the lead after Kimmich’s volley, Davies’ header and Laursen’s own goal, which could not withstand the pressure from Lewandowski.
The power play of the champions, who were clearly trying to make amends, lasted around twenty minutes before things settled down a bit and Arminia also set accents with their counterattacks over the urgent Wimmer. In the 43rd minute, the equalizer after Okugawa’s lob seemed due, but the goal scorer was offside by a toe when the ball was accepted after a lengthy consultation between referee Jöllenbeck and the video assistant. Unlike Gnabry on the other side, whom Jöllenbeck’s assistant Günsch thought was offside, but not video assistant Schmidt, who signaled a correct goal.
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Shortly before that, Munich central defender Nianzhou was very lucky when he was only warned and not sent off after an elbow blow to midfielder Kunze, who was taken from the field to the hospital on a stretcher (45+4). The Bielefeld team initially feared their third serious head injury in recent times after Klos’ fractured skull in the 1-1 draw against Stuttgart and Brunner’s concussion in the 4-0 draw in Wolfsburg. As the club announced a little later, the 23-year-old is doing better, he is stable and not seriously injured.
After so much excitement before the break, the second half wasn’t quite as wild. Bielefeld, who never gave up, kept looking for their next big opportunity, while Munich, who were clearly superior, managed their lead. Nagelsmann was smart enough at half-time to swap Nianzhou, who had become a bogeyman, for Stanisic. For Nagelsmann, above all, an “educational measure, because for me it was a red card”. After that, the all too hard note in this at least moving duel was passé. Otherwise, given the clarified conditions, not much happened apart from Musiala’s final goal.
After the inevitable defeat, the Bielefeld losers consoled themselves with the fact that their performance had been right for long stretches. “You could see today that the team is fighting and giving everything, it wasn’t such a bad performance,” said captain Manuel Prietl, assessing the brave resistance vis-à-vis the champion. He was already looking forward to the following showdown against BVB. “We want to get the title next week,” was Kimmich’s demand, “that’s the top priority now. In the end, however, the championship alone might not be enough.”
