After the defeat against Bremen, FC Bayern returned with a difficult victory against Union Berlin. In the final phase there is commotion and a red card.
Only the result was right: an unsettled FC Bayern only managed to avert a real crisis with great effort three days after the embarrassment against Bremen. Coach Thomas Tuchel’s team won the Bundesliga catch-up game against Union Berlin 1-0 (0-0) without much fanfare and moved within four points of leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Union coach Nenad Bjelica caused a scandal. He grabbed Leroy Sane twice in the face during a scramble in front of the Berliner Bank and was shown a red card for this attack (74′).
In the hunt for the twelfth championship in a row, Raphael Guerreiro gave the record champions the lead just a few seconds after the break (46th). In front of 75,000 spectators, including national coach Julian Nagelsmann, the record champions once again lacked ease for long stretches. The pressure remains high, including on Tuchel, who has already come into focus in the past few days.
On Saturday (3:30 p.m./Sky) in the Bavarian derby at FC Augsburg, Bayern have to step up their game to avoid further unrest. However, the ailing Dayot Upamecano, who had to go out injured at the break, is likely to be missing. Winter signing Eric Dier celebrated his Bayern debut in his place. Union remains in the basement. On Sunday the Iron Men will face Darmstadt 98 in the relegation battle.
That’s how the game went
“Duel behavior, grit, enthusiasm,” Tuchel had warned before the game. But he apparently didn’t change much in his cabin speech. Rather, said the Bayern coach immediately before kick-off, you have to “keep calm”.
At least the team, which had reliably shown a reaction after the previous three failures this season, seemed willing to shake off the massive criticism of the last few days. Bayern, where Leon Goretzka came into the team for Alphonso Davies and Guerreiro moved to the left, dominated the action from the start – without convincing.
But at least there were a few chances quickly, in contrast to the disgraceful performance against Werder. But Union keeper Frederik Rönnow saved against Matthijs de Ligt and Upamecano (6th) and Kingsley Coman (11th).
Otherwise, the hard-working Bavarians found it difficult to find a gap against the tightly packed Berlin chain. Too often there was a lack of ideas, speed and precision – only shortly before the break it became dangerous twice: first Leroy Sane missed the target by centimeters, then Rönnow only parried away a Guerreiro shot, Jamal Musiala came a little too late.
The start of the second half was tough: First Kane hit the post, Guerreiro heaved the follow-up shot into the goal. Shortly afterwards, Rönnow again cleared a dangerous corner from Joshua Kimmich. Bayern stayed on the trigger: a goal from Kane was disallowed for offside according to video evidence.
Union could hardly break free, but could have got a penalty on one of the few counterattacks when Laimer brought down Kevin Behrens in the penalty area. Bjelica was so angry that he had an argument with Sane shortly afterwards.