Günter takes the lead
©IMAGO
Record champions FC Bayern Munich suffered another setback on the debut of new sports director Max Eberl and lost an important victory in the Bundesliga’s anniversary. The team of coach Thomas Tuchel, who left at the end of the season, had to be content with a 2:2 (1:1) draw at SC Freiburg on Friday. The new sports director Eberl watched Munich’s 2000th Bundesliga game from the stands on his first official day at work.
Captain Christian Günter scored 1-0 for Freiburg in the twelfth minute. Mathys Tel (35th) and Jamal Musiala (75th) turned the game in favor of the guests, then Lucas Höler (87th) hit back again for the SC. In the table, leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who play against 1. FC Köln on Sunday, can now extend their lead over Bayern to ten points. On Tuesday, the Munich team has the important second leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League against Lazio Rome, in which they want to turn around the 0-1 result from the first leg in their hunt for a title this season.
Freiburg started bravely and rewarded themselves with an early lead. The Hungarian Roland Sallai was initially denied by the brilliantly reacting Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer and then hit the crossbar with an overhead kick. The Munich team couldn’t get the ball out of the back – and Günter hit it from the backcourt precisely into the bottom right corner. Bayern, with Minjae Kim replacing the suspended Matthijs de Ligt in the center of defense and Joshua Kimmich once again defending on the right, were anything but secure defensively in the first half hour. They repeatedly offered the sports club surprisingly large rooms.
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Again Günter, who failed to score against Neuer (16th), and Vincenzo Grifo, who shot the ball past the right of the goal (22nd), could have added more for Freiburg. The guests, on the other hand, hardly caused any danger up front. Thomas Müller fell in the penalty area after Günter used his arm, but did not receive a penalty (25th).
Only when the Breisgauers withdrew a little did the FCB manage to build up pressure. The 18-year-old Tel, who replaced the injured Leroy Sané and often swapped sides with Musiala in Bayern’s attacking three-man line, beautifully flicked the ball from the left corner of the penalty area into the right corner to make it 1-1. A little later, Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu only saved a low shot from Leon Goretzka in the follow-up (39th).
After the break, Bayern increased the number of hits. Star striker Harry Kane also appeared more often, once narrowly missing the goal (47′). The nimble Alphonso Davies made his comeback after a long injury break after just over an hour and was supposed to further stimulate the visitors’ wing play. Musiala was denied by Atubolu (71′), a header from Kane was cleared by Freiburg’s Höler just before the line (72′).
15 minutes before the end, Musiala launched a solo effort worth seeing – and flicked the ball into the right corner. But Freiburg didn’t give up and actually managed to equalize through Höler. After a throw-in, the attacker was allowed to shoot into the far corner relatively undisturbed.
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