‘Man of the Match’ against Celtic
© Imago
The connection goal for 2: 1 (1-0) against Celtic Glasgow clouded the mood of FC Bayern on Wednesday evening, but basically the ninth victory from the last ten competitive games gave a good feeling before the top game on Saturday at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The reason for this was also the solid defensive around Dayot Upamecano, which recently performed well and received praise from several sides.
“I’ve seen him very stable all season,” said sports director Max Eberl after the game. “For me, upa is an outstanding central defender and he showed that today.” The Frenchman, who had prepared Michael Olise’s 1-0 lead with a precise long ball, was rewarded with the award as ‘Man of the Match’. For Eberl, “this is again of particular importance because it usually does not happen” that defenders are given this honor.
Upamecano experienced a roller coaster ride in his three and a half years at Bayern. Strong phases were repeatedly overshadowed by large dropouts. The transfer fee of 42.5 million euros, which was paid to RB Leipzig in 2021, was not always a good investment. Especially last season, the central defense of Munich had to take up a lot of criticism and with the signing of Hiroki Ito (25) from VfB Stuttgart and the return of Bayer loan Josip Stanisic (24), the competition was heated up in summer.
Upamecano used that both accesses almost the entire first half of the season due to injury. Only next to Min-Jae Kim (2,637 minutes) and Joshua Kimmich (2,970) were longer on the pitch than the French international this season. Eric dier – still under Thomas Tuchel last season – has just been 575 minutes.
The defense duo also made it excellently against Celtic. “It was a very difficult game in a great stadium and with a great opponent, but we won and are satisfied. We did it very well, we defended a lot of path, ”said Upamecano, who was also lucky in the second half when the referee did not give a potential penalty for Celtic.