Bayern Munich hosted Real Madrid this Tuesday evening, on the lawn of the Allianz Arena stadium, in Munich, Germany, during the semi-final first leg of the Champions League. A fortnight ago, the Bavarians and the Madrilenians respectively defeated the English clubs Arsenal and Manchester City. While Paris Saint-Germain will enter the dance tomorrow evening against Dortmund, their potential opponent in the final, in the event of success against BVB, was playing this Tuesday evening.
In addition to the poster which naturally smelled of powder, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid remained successful in the league. The two evening teams were full of confidence last weekend by winning their championship match. Indeed, Real Madrid was content with the minimum against Real Sociedad in the Basque Country (1-0), while Bayern Munich overthrew Eintracht Frankfurt (2-1) at home.
The first period started with great Bavarian domination. After 49 seconds, Bayern Munich were already showing their fangs. On a nice combination on the left side, Harry Kane was used as a fixation to play the one-two with Leroy Sané. The latter broke through the Madrid defense but saw his shot pushed back by Andriy Lunin with his foot. In a big atmosphere at the Allianz Arena, Thomas Tuchel’s players wanted to continue like the attempts of Harry Kane (6th, 9th) but also of Sané (7th) and Musiala (12th, 16th). This start to the match was marked by a big phase of possession from Bayern Munich who tried to dictate their game by building and looking for space. And on their first strike, the Merengues opened the scoring. On a magnificent ball from Toni Kroos, Vinicius is found in depth. The Brazilian has plenty of time to adjust his face-to-face to deceive Manuel Neuer (23rd, 0-1). Even when pushed, it doesn’t take many opportunities for the Madrid attackers to punish. Bayern harvested too much during its domination phase. Apart from a nice free kick attempted by Kane (42nd), opportunities then became rare between two teams who measured each other by circulating the ball.
Compared to the first period, the restart was not immediately dominated by one team. Both Real Madrid and Bayern tried to minimize technical waste and tried to go through the wings to build. The Merengues seem slightly more offensive but this observation quickly changed. Served by Konrad Laimer on the right side, Leroy Sané attempted to break through into the Madrid area before landing a powerful strike which deceived Lunin. The German surprised everyone with this shot (53rd, 1-1). In the next action, served on the left side, Jamal Musiala launched into a breakthrough. On his hook, he collapsed upon contact with Lucas Vasquez. Indisputable penalty for Bayern which Harry Kane transforms (57th, 2-1).
Bayern continued to press, looking for the third goal, first with this shot from Kane (66th) then the two headers from Dier (67th, 71st) from a corner. After long minutes of aggression and frantic pace, both teams seemed to slow down the offensive play in the last quarter of an hour. Served on the edge of the area, Vinicius resists the double take to slip the ball to Rodrygo in the area. The Brazilian is immediately cut down by Kim min-jae in the Bavarian area. No hesitation for Clément Turpin who indicated the penalty point, well converted by Vinicius (83rd, 2-2). That put an end to this completely crazy scenario. See you next Wednesday at Santiago-Bernabeu for the return match.