Before the round of 16 in the DFB Cup against Bayer Leverkusen, FC Bayern has to reschedule. Coach Vincent Kompany’s job is to replace the injured Harry Kane. There are several options available as a replacement for the injured star striker.
A title dream must burst. From Bavaria? Or Bavarian? Before what feels like the final between record winners FC Bayern and defending champions Bayer Leverkusen 172 days before the real DFB Cup final in Berlin, Munich coach Vincent Kompany’s thoughts are not so much about the immense pressure in the most important football game of the season so far.
“I deal with pressure a little differently. I like it when these games are made big,” said Kompany around 35 hours before the kick-off of the round of 16 game on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./ARD and Sky) in Munich. The pressure for him as a coach is more to “always deliver the best performance”. Only that will be enough to win against Leverkusen’s double winners.
The 38-year-old Kompany has to solve one key question in particular in the exciting coaching test of strength with Xabi Alonso, who is five years his senior: he needs a Harry Kane double. Problem: This is exactly what doesn’t exist in FC Bayern’s valuable player portfolio. “Harry scored 20 goals this season, you can’t replace that. That’s why he’s a top player,” Kompany remarked about the injured goalgetter, who will be out for around two weeks.
100 million euro man Kane is unique. And sports director Christoph Freund waved off the purchase of a second top center forward with a view to the winter transfer period. “We won’t be able to afford to sign a second Harry Kane. That wouldn’t be healthy for the squad either.”
Leverkusen has style – and a run
Things are different in Leverkusen. Alonso can replace center forward Victor Boniface, who like Kane is currently out with a muscle injury, one-on-one with Patrik Schick. The Czech scored six goals in the last four competitive games – a Harry Kane quota. “The effectiveness is there,” said goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky about the current Schick run and indirectly added with a swipe towards Munich: “It’s important to have a striker like that.”
Schick’s top form and the overall performance curve of the entire Leverkusen master ensemble, which is currently showing a steep upward trend, prompts sports director Simon Rolfes to sound bold: “We are a strong team and we will show that in Munich.”
Bayern leader Joshua Kimmich sees both teams in “very good spirits”. He sees “a duel on equal terms” – despite Munich’s home advantage. Kompany trusts his ensemble to be able to compensate for the loss of their guaranteed success Kane, who tore a muscle fiber in his right thigh in the 1-1 draw in Dortmund, in the knockout game with offensive creativity and as a greedy collective.
“We have players who are dangerous to score. This of course helps us to resolve this situation. We have many options,” assured Kompany and promptly named a long list: “Thomas Müller, Mathys Tel, Serge Gnabry, Michael Olise, Leroy Sané.” Experienced Müller seems to be the first option, even if the 35-year-old – in Dortmund came on as a substitute for Kane – it wasn’t a success factor.
Who does more magic: Musiala or Wirtz?
The Bayern game will of course “look different” without Kane, noted Kompany. Above all, the burden that Jamal Musiala has to shoulder increases again – and that in direct comparison to his congenial DFB colleague Florian Wirtz, who, along with Schick, is Bayer’s biggest offensive trump card.
With ten goals this season, 21-year-old Musiala is at least half Kane. “Jamal has a real nose at the moment,” said sports director Max Eberl after Musiala’s header to make it 1-1 in the league classic against Dortmund.
“We have to keep pushing,” warned Musiala. Big games should be Bayern games again after they were clearly Bayer games last season. As a coach with Leverkusen, Alonso has not yet lost against Bayern (two wins, two draws). “Things are going very well for us. But there is no more difficult task than playing in Munich,” said the Spaniard.
Kompany is excited to see how Alonso’s team will perform in Munich this time. In the 1-1 draw in the Bundesliga at the end of September, the factory club in Munich was stonewalled. “You can defend deep and press high,” Kompany knows and says: “We have respect.” Because a defeat in the DFB Cup cannot be repaired.
Bavaria has the higher fall height
Whoever loses, whether after 90 minutes, after extra time or in an ultimate showdown from the penalty spot, has to give up their first title of the season. Record winners FC Bayern, who have been waiting for their 25th final appearance since last winning the cup in 2020, have the greater fall height.
Bayer goalkeeper Hradecky is looking forward to “a cracking game” in which the champion wants to “throw out the strongest title candidate”. For him, whoever wins this mega round of 16 is “a big favorite to win the cup at the end”.
dpa/rc
