And then they have to run, Julian Nagelsmann said. The metaphor as such is a nice tool, but with a few small flaws: Unfortunately, you can’t win games with it, not even in the Champions League; And it’s not particularly easy to present in glass cases in the club’s museum, no matter how beautiful it is – like that “silver buckle” that the FC Bayern Munich coach spoke of before the quarter-final second leg against FC Villarreal. He last kept the players on a short leash for three days, he said on Monday, and now he only has to undo this buckle. A nice picture.
Anyone who then expected that Munich would start in full sprint on Tuesday evening, that they developed the power in pressing that their coach recently called for, that this evening might make a similar statement as in the 7-1 second leg win in the round of 16 against Salzburg – the however, was deceived. At first it was anything but a Bavarian raiding party. Little indicated that the Munich team had planned something big. And in the end it didn’t. The final score was 1:1. Only for the fourth time in the past ten years did Bayern miss the semi-finals of the premier class.
Villarreal striker Gerard Morena fired the first shot towards goal. Bayern then had the first smaller chances: After a volley from Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller couldn’t get the ball, and after 15 minutes Joshua Kimmich flew just under a Sané cross. It still took almost half an hour before things became really dangerous for the first time: After Kingsley Coman’s first diagonal transfer to Sané, Jamal Musiala at least managed to head the ball onto the Villarreal goal. Bavaria gradually got closer. The guests defended skillfully and waited.
Because his players shouldn’t just run, but ideally also know where to go and why, he recently spoke to them a lot, Nagelsmann had revealed that the day before. He did “a lot of detailed work” and, above all, repeatedly emphasized the intensity he wanted to see that they missed the last steps towards the opponent when pressing in the first leg in order to build up the pressure that is needed against the playfully strong Spaniards.
The Villareal players celebrate the 1-1.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
And then Nagelsmann had surprisingly changed his basic order. He left top sprinter Alphonso Davies out as well as Serge Gnabry, switched the defense to a three-man chain, grabbed Coman and Sané on the outside positions around Musiala and thus offered the free spirit Thomas Müller almost as a second point.
On paper it was an amazingly offensive variant, but the Munich presentation didn’t get much more intense until the break. At best, a little more emotional after a few robust duels that got the arena in the right mood. Arnaut Danjuma, Villarreal’s goalscorer from the 1-0 win in the first leg, almost escaped and Morena fired a shot wide of Manuel Neuer’s goal with the half-time whistle.
They had previously talked a lot about the thrill of these knockout games in Munich, about the pressure under which they had recently delivered again and again, as the coach put it. But then, as with the strange dress rehearsal at the weekend against FC Augsburg, it took a significant increase in intensity after the break to show what was actually possible – and once again Robert Lewandowski. After Coman won the ball in midfield, Müller served the Pole, who shot in to make it 1-0 (52′).
Only now did you really get the feeling that the buckle was open and the line was loose. That the Munich constricted their guests, the chain of defense could be limited to counterattacks. Coman began to make his dreaded hooks on the left, Sané on the other flank was not quite as dangerous in his dribbles, but he always crossed dangerously – like in the 70th minute, when Müller crossed in from a promising position set the gate. Only once did the Spaniards come halfway dangerously in front of the Munich goal, Danjuma shot just wide of the far corner. Manuel Neuer was no longer required.
Nagelsmann substituted Gnabry late for Musiala, shortly before the end Davies came for Lucas Hernandez. And then something happened that was no longer to be expected in this phase – but could be taken as a receipt for the first half: Substitute Samu Chukwueze completed a counterattack – not the specialty of the guests, as Nagelsmann had previously emphasized – to 1: 1 (88th). A few more minutes of desperate running followed, then the Spanish substitutes and coaches ran jubilantly onto the field at the final whistle. Now they seemed unleashed.