Gnabry went out injured early
With a very serious performance, FC Bayern Munich confidently moved into the second round of the DFB Cup at Preußen Münster. Coach Thomas Tuchel’s team deservedly defeated the third division team 4-0 (3-0) on Tuesday evening. In front of 12,794 spectators in the sold-out Preußenstadion, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting (9th minute), Konrad Laimer (40th), Frans Krätzig (45th + 5th) and Mathys Tel (86th) scored the goals for the record champions, whose fans were with them a protest against the cup date caused the game to be interrupted for around two minutes.
Three days after the furious 7-0 win against VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, Bayern didn’t put on the big football show without star striker Harry Kane this time. At no point did they allow any thoughts of a Westphalian sensation to arise, even with an emergency central defense. Münster was clearly inferior. The big fireworks display took place in the Preußen-Kurve before kick-off. Referee Matthias Jöllenbeck took it with a smile, but because the pyrotechnic show had fogged up one half of the field, he waited a moment before the unequal showdown began.
The fact that Tuchel had to improvise heavily in defense did not change the balance of power: Dayot Upamecano had also signed off with injury complaints in the morning, and Matthijs de Ligt and Min-jae Kim were also missing. Tuchel ordered Noussair Mazraoui and Leon Goretzka into central defense in front of goalkeeper Daniel Peretz, who was making his competitive debut for Bayern.
At the front, Tuchel voluntarily gave up goal scorer Kane, Leroy Sané also got a breather, and Thomas Müller was missing from the squad due to a strain. The offensive power was still immense with players like Choupo-Moting, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry, Tel and Kingsley Coman. And Münster felt that right away. Goretzka moved up and lofted the ball into the penalty area, where Gnabry collided with the actual Münster substitute keeper Johannes Schenk, who had rushed out and was on loan from Bayern. The action had characteristics of a body check. Gnabry had to be treated and minutes later even had to leave the field because of pain in his left arm. There were no penalties, however, and video evidence was not available.
Five minutes later the ball was in the Münster goal. On the right, Tel outplayed several Prussian professionals, in the middle, Choupo-Moting gave Schenk no chance. The next fireworks, now from the Munich players, failed to materialize. Instead, Peretz was given a chance to excel. In the follow-up he cleared against Malik Batmaz.
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Münster didn’t have to hope for a substitution mistake like Mark von Bommel made two years ago in VfL Wolfsburg’s victory; his team wanted to be unpleasant, coach Sascha Hildmann had announced. And it took until the second Munich goal by Laimer, finely prepared by Goretzka. Shortly before the half-time whistle, Krätzig, who came on for Gnabry, made his goal debut in his second competitive game for Bayern.
It also took a while because the game was interrupted. After around 30 minutes, Munich fans threw tennis balls onto the field. A poster read: “No to the Supercup on the cup weekend!” They didn’t like the fact that the Munich team, as champions, had played the Supercup against the cup winners RB Leipzig on the actual first round cup date in August and that the Münster game therefore took place so late.
With the three-goal lead, the Bayern bench was visibly relaxed in the second half. Especially since Tuchel’s team absolutely controlled the game and Prussia’s hopes of a cup sensation had given way to reality. Tuchel took advantage of this. He granted, among others, goalscorer Laimer and captain Joshua Kimmich an early end of duty before the Bundesliga clash on Saturday in Leipzig and was then allowed to applaud goal number four to get things in the mood.
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