Despite losing the first game of the Champions League quarter-final 3-2 to Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich showed great fighting and created many chances under the lights in a snowy Alliaz Arena. They did so without talisman Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry, who tested positive for the coronavirus just one day before the match. Bayern are now facing a difficult test in Paris, after conceding three away goals, and they will probably have to do the same without Niklas Sule and Leon Goretzka, who both suffered injuries during the loss.
After the match on Sky Germany (via Tz), Lothar Matthäus studied the overall group of Bayern deeply and questioned some of the staff decisions that Hasan Salihamidzic made during the summer transfer window. Transfer decisions and policies have always been a button between Brazzo and Hansi Flick, but at FC Bayern the executive board, board of directors and sporting director tend to have most of the most important authority when it comes to these decisions. Looking at the group, Matthew questioned some of the players brought in by the summer. Brazzo.
‘This is the transfers that were made last autumn, the transfer composition that we have been criticizing for a long time. There are four players on the last day: [Doulas] Costa, [Bouna] Sarr, [Marc] Roca – they are not Bayern Munich players. You get a player from the second Spanish league, Roca, from Espanyol Barcelona. And a Perisic and a Thiago go at the same time. Bavaria no longer has the quality, ”Matthäus said.
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Photo by Sven Hoppe / photo alliance via Getty Images
For the match against PSG, Bayern indicated only six of the nine substitutes on the bench, Sarr among the six. Of course, Costa and Roca are out with injury issues at the moment. Still, Matthäus’ weight holds a lot of weight because Bayern really do not have depth on the bench, especially since he was forced to tackle Alphonso Davies and Jerome Boateng in the first half due to the injuries to Goretzka and Sule. It was different last season when Flick had enough options to pick out in the Champions League run in Portugal.
Matthäus compared Bayern’s group situation to Chelsea’s winning their first innings agent FC Porto 2-0. ‘Chelsea have five grenades on the bench for the storm, if I look at them: Pulisic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Zyiech and Abraham. And Bavaria? If Bayern have a bit of injury problems, the quality is lacking. “Except for Jamal Musiala, the 18-year-old, no one is on the bench for the offensive,” he said.