Thomas Müller has overtaken Gerd Müller and is Bayern’s new record outfield player. In his anniversary game on Saturday afternoon (02/11/2023) he also initiated the win against VfL Bochum.
With the 3-0 (1-0) win against VfL Bochum, Munich underpinned their top position in the Bundesliga and showed themselves well prepared for the premier class duel next Tuesday with Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann then said in the Sportschau interview: “It was only a decent performance from us from the 60th minute, before that we tried to do it with too little movement. On Tuesday against Paris we definitely have to improve our performance, it will be an exciting duel – both teams want to show a different face . As Bayern you have to get through, but the same goes for PSG.”
Letsch: “The game is the story of our season”
His colleague Thomas Letsch analyzed: “We really wanted to do our thing and make life difficult for our opponents. But the game is a bit of the story of our season. An unnecessary back pass puts you behind and in a couple of situations we’re a step too late. Overall it was doing well, but unfortunately we make a little too many mistakes that we urgently need to correct.”
The Bochum team did indeed play a decent game, but in the end they were much too harmless to be able to repeat the historic day of 1991.
When Ralf “Katze” Zumdick remembered VfL Bochum’s away win at Bayern before the game in a WDR interview, the goalkeeper legend immediately gave the recipe for success against the record champions: “You have to get through the first 15 minutes without conceding a goal. Then you know you have a chance.” At that time, Zumdick not only survived the first, but also the following five quarters of an hour without conceding a goal, Ralf Benatelli and Heiko Bonan scored a 2-0 win in Munich’s Olympic Stadium.
Brave start from Bochum
His indirect successor Manuel Riemann survived the first quarter of an hour on Saturday (February 11, 2023) and also the second – because Bochum started the game with the front runner in a refreshingly courageous manner. With five or six players, the VfL pros already bothered Bayern in their penalty area and made their build-up game enormously difficult.
But once the first pressing line was overplayed, it became dangerous from time to time: In the 17th minute, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting headed a cross from Joao Cancelo to the side netting, after almost half an hour Choupo-Moting extended a high ball into the Run by Thomas Müller, whose lob Riemann was just able to pick down.
Janko-Patzer – Riemann again with trip bad luck
Riemann recently had his problems with his excursions, in the 1-2 cup win against Dortmund on Wednesday he initiated the 49.5-meter goal conceded by Emre Can. Of course, in this scene, which Riemann himself initiated, there was also a lot of bad luck. And that happened to him again in Munich: In the 41st minute, Riemann tried to save Janko after a catastrophic back pass attempt by Saidy, caught the ball from far outside the penalty area, but got stuck on Müller. He circled around Janko again and pushed 18 meters into the empty box – like in Dortmund, Riemann didn’t get back on his line in time.
For Müller it was a special goal in a special game: With his 428th appearance, Thomas overtook his namesake Gerd as FCB’s sole record outfield player. Even before the change, the hosts should have done better after Riemann was only able to parry a Matthijs de Ligt header forward. Leon Goretzka flew up and had a clear path for his header – but the ex-Bochum player placed the ball past the post to the left.
VfL with too little activity forward
What Bochum lacked in the first half was, in addition to these two or three failures on the defensive, their game forward: 12:1 shots on goal were recorded when changing sides, Yann Sommer in the Munich goal was hardly in demand. That changed at least once in the 51st minute: Philipp Hofmann beat de Ligt in a dogfight, but Sommer steered the header over the crossbar.
The Munich team then increased the number of strokes again and combined too quickly for VfL in the 64th minute: Kingsley Coman, who had been substituted for Müller, came through Leroy Sané, Goretzka and Jamal Musiala from the inside right – and tunneled the unfortunate-looking Riemann again. When Janko only knew how to help himself against Serge Gnabry in the penalty area in the 73rd minute, the fouled player converted the penalty himself to 3: 0 – but the hope of a coup similar to that of 32 years ago had long since evaporated anyway.
Bayern against Paris during the week
In the round of 16 of the Champions League, FC Bayern Munich meets Paris Saint-Germain at home (Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 9 p.m.).
In the Bundesliga, the record champions are challenged in Gladbach (Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.). Bochum is playing Freiburg at home at the same time.