FC Bayern beats Wolfsburg: Painful return for Niko Kovac

Niko Kovac got up from the bench, but before he was allowed to disappear underground at half-time, which is always located under a kind of trapdoor in the Munich football arena, which magically seems to lift after 45 minutes, a few old acquaintances ran up past him. Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Manuel Neuer, and yes, Thomas Müller too. Did Kovac think of his parable of the highway again at that moment? Shortly before his dismissal as Bayern coach on an autumn day three years ago, Kovac said: “You can’t try to drive 200 kilometers an hour on the Autobahn if you can only do 100. You have to adapt what you have. We have different types of players.”

Kovac’s racing driver theory, which was already remarkable at the time, was soon subjected to a rock-solid fact check when his successor Hansi Flick set new speed records with exactly the same cars and rushed to the triple title in just a few months.

But now? Two years later? On this muggy August evening in the arena in Fröttmaning, which he knows so well? You could see from the serious face of the Wolfsburg trainer that he would have liked to have distributed a few tickets for speeding. Which was out of the question. Because Kovac had seen how Flick’s successor, Julian Nagelsmann, suddenly removed all red-bordered signs with black numbers after 20 minutes of stubborn resistance from VfL, thus generating an anarchic volume of traffic that made the visitors really dizzy.

Kovac and VfL were only 0:2 behind at halftime, which also corresponded to the later final score. But their match plan, to meet Munich’s fine feet with a lot of hardness and courageous resistance, was already ripe for the trash when Kovac disappeared into the ground for the first time. After that, the guests made no significant resistance.

On his return to Fröttmaning, Kovac also saw a few speedsters that he didn’t have in his fleet as Bayern manager: Sadio Mané and Jamal Musiala, for example, who dominated in the third game in a row on Sunday. But it was also true that he could no longer spot a particularly beautifully shaped car because it was simply no longer there: Robert Lewandowski. But Kovac will not have escaped the fact that every now and then a gorgeous oldtimer rushed past his coach square, about which Kovac said at the time, “if there should be a need,” this Thomas Müller could definitely get a few minutes of action. This same Müller now took revenge, prepared the first goal and scored the second himself.

Congratulations to the successor: Niko Kovac with Julian Nagelsmann.

(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)

After the furious 6-1 win over Frankfurt on the first day of the game, Nagelsmann apparently thought it was a fair move to tell his opponent the line-up before the game. As announced in the press conference, he made no changes to his personnel structure. And so the same eleven that had overrun Frankfurt 6-1 should now crush VfL Wolfsburg. That’s the plan. But the only thing that initially went as planned was a minute’s silence before kick-off and a pretty choreography in the south curve, in memory of the recently deceased club president Willi O. Hoffmann: “The last champagne is on you – rest in peace, President”

The game itself started with a slightly confused presentation by Bayern. Musiala played a hoe to nowhere far in front. Far behind, Benjamin Pavard let himself be loaded in the countermovement – the subsequent big chance was cleared by Alphonso Davies on his own post.

What only briefly irritated Bayern was that Wolfsburg were plowing hard against the ball. Early disruption, hard kicks, that’s what Kovac’s concept looked like. However, Nagelsmann had prepared his players for this. He doesn’t expect a fight with an open visor from the Wolfsburg team – but also not one with a “vacuum-packed helmet”.

Bayern had to wait 13 minutes for their first chance. And when the time came, defender Pavard headed a corner kick from midfielder Kimmich onto the crossbar. After 20 minutes, Wolfsburg got away with a fright when Bayern performed the overture to their dreaded passing game. A long pass from Upamecano found Musiala, who quickly forwarded it to Müller, who to Gnabry – and Mané kept his foot in the pass at the far post. However, it was offside.

Alphonso Davies initiates both goals

Nagelsmann then allowed Davies to move further forward on the left – and 14 minutes after the dress rehearsal, Bayern showed their first feat that conformed to the rules, in which almost as many feet were involved as before. Surrounded by numerous Wolfsburg players, Davies pranced calmly through midfield with the ball at his feet – and then it happened quickly. Pass on Müller, pass on Musiala. And the 19-year-old executed, hard and placed – his fourth goal in the third competitive game of the season (33rd minute).

For half an hour, Kovac’s plan had worked. At least in such a way that he delayed the Wolfsburg disaster. But now arrows penetrated the guests’ penalty area from all sides with the exception of the goal line – and sharp balls flew at Koen Casteels’ goal – fired by Pavard, Kimmich, Gnabry, Musiala, Sabitzer. Casteels held up well, but he can’t do magic either. Because at some point Alphonso Davies made a sprint on the left side, his opponent Ridle Baku straddled into space – and Davies covered it with a lot of overview. Kimmich shot from the edge of the penalty area – and Müller stretched his leg in Müller’s way to irresistibly change the trajectory of the shot (43′).

After the break, Gnabry, the least conspicuous member of the offensive line so far, stayed on the bench. He was replaced by a national player who would be seeded in any other Bundesliga team: Leroy Sané. It was also the 26-year-old who, after a one-two with Musiala, who was always ready to play, made sure that Casteels didn’t get sleepy soon after the restart. And it was Musiala who began to do magic. With the hoe he played a one-two with Pavard, who crossed spotlessly to the far post – where it remained Mané’s secret how he could head this opportunity next to the goal.

When Mané did better shortly afterwards and scored, the video referee had to clarify two tricky questions during a longer break in the game: Was the ball behind the line before Casteels cleared it? And hadn’t Müller been offside as a template provider? Well, the ball was in, but Müller was offside. Nagelsmann then took Mané out of the game and gave 17-year-old Mathys Tel a chance to develop a little. And Musiala was allowed to leave the field early to listen to the well-deserved ovation of the Munich audience as the outstanding player of the game.

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