He almost had his trophy stolen. The European football association Uefa wanted to honor Leroy Sané as “Man of the match” late on Wednesday evening when Thomas Müller approached the association representative and wanted to take the trophy from his hands. Both laughed because everyone knew that there could only be one person for this trophy that night: Sané.
After a great pass from Joshua Kimmich, the FC Bayern international took advantage of Munich’s first chance to score and made it 1-0 (25th) in the game at Inter Milan. In the second half, the 26-year-old played a double one-two with Kingsley Coman Shot resulted in Danilo D’Ambrosio’s own goal (66th). Sané was largely responsible for Bayern starting the group stage of the Champions League with a commanding 2-0 (1-0).
“It was a class difference,” said DAZN expert Michael Ballack, once captain of the German national team. “Sané was the difference player in this game.”
Sané beamed after the final whistle. He only knew the Milan stadium from video games, he said with a smile. The attacker scored his tenth goal in just his 19th game in the premier class for Bayern – only strikers Roy Makaay (ten games) and Robert Lewandowski (16) needed fewer games to reach this mark at Bayern.
Sané is particularly strong in the Champions League. Since the start of last season, he has been directly involved in 13 goals in the competition (seven goals, six assists) – surpassed only by Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Barcelona-signed Lewandowski, who Wednesday night with his club 5: 1 away against Viktoria Pilsen won.
“I saw the space and knew they had gaps there. Then I did the run and Jo saw me great,” said Sané, describing his opening goal. With his tempo runs, he initiated many offensive actions. The stats don’t matter to him. “I just want to play a good game, have a good feeling and leave the pitch happy,” said Sané.
He’s a player who has polarized for around €60m since joining Bayern from Manchester City two years ago. Sané’s performance curve has been going up and down for months. On ZDF it said Thursday morning: Sané fluctuated between genius and lethargy.
Most recently, a sentence by Julian Nagelsmann caused discussions. The Bayern coach had said that if Sané wanted to, he was a great player. In Milan he was obviously really interested. If only this highly talented professional would only play like this, many Bayern fans said.
Sané has already played many very good games for Munich. What he’s lacking so far is consistency. Last season he inspired in the preliminary round, but then dropped significantly in the second half and was always on the bench.
Captain Manuel Neuer praised Sané on Wednesday evening in Milan: “He played very well. Leroy is a key player for special moments. He can decide games – especially in the state he is in at the moment. A very important man for us. We know what we have in him. And we hope that he will continue to perform like this.”
Sport director Hasan Salihamidzic said: “It’s fun to watch Leroy. He enjoys football, he’s dangerous and he works backwards, forwards. He should just keep going. If he wants to, if he brings the qualities on the pitch, he can become one of the best in Europe.” He totally believes in Sané.
In the coming days, Leroy Sané has two opportunities to confirm his very good performance against Inter: Saturday (3:30 p.m., Sky) Bayern receive VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, on Tuesday (9 p.m., Amazon Prime) Lewandowski’s FC Barcelona.
