Thanks to Kane & Musiala: FC Bayern strives to win at Galatasaray

Increased opportunities on the part of the Turks

In the cauldron of Istanbul, an ultimately ice-cold FC Bayern continued its record series in the Champions League. 100 million purchase Harry Kane (73rd) and Jamal Musiala (79th) made the Munich team celebrate 3-1 (1-1) and the extended lead in the league table in Europe’s premier football league on Tuesday evening after a lot of effort against Galatasaray. After Kingsley Coman (8th) silenced the deafening cheering of the fans in Rams Park early, but only for a short time, the Turkish champions turned up the heat not only with Mauro Icardi’s cheeky penalty kick (30th).

When Noussair Mazraoui returned to the Bayern starting line-up, coach Thomas Tuchel was happy that the hosts did not reward themselves for their increased chances in an emotional performance with a 2-1 win. Sven Ulreich distinguished himself several times in what was probably his last game in the Munich goal. The comeback of captain Manuel Neuer, who has been injured for a long time, is scheduled for Saturday. The Munich team have been unbeaten in 37 group games and have won all of their last 16 games.

Tuchel had warned against an “aggressive team” – and the Munich coach was right. Spurred on by the 50,000 hot-blooded fans, Galatasaray acted with extremely high pressing and a lot of power that Bayern had never experienced before this season. Galatasaray, who had already duped English record champions Manchester United at Old Trafford (3-2), repeatedly managed to win the ball quickly and created an unusually large number of scoring chances for Bayern.

The Munich four-man defense chain was under constant pressure from the attacking efforts of Icardi and Co. and acted anything but securely. That’s how it went from 0 to 100 for right-back Mazraoui, who was recently injured, when he returned to the Bayern team, which sometimes caused him problems. The Moroccan recently caused a stir when he shared a video on social networks wishing the Palestinians a victory in the conflict with Israel. After his return from the national team, FC Bayern had “a detailed and clarifying conversation” with him last week, but that did not silence the critical voices.

The game actually started perfectly for the Munich team, who were struggling with personnel – national player Leon Goretzka was also recently sidelined (broken metacarpal). With the first attack, Coman scored the opening goal after a pass from Leroy Sané, who, however, also benefited from a positional error by Kazimcan Karatas. The Munich Gate was only a short-term mood killer in the Istanbul cauldron. In return, Ulreich was forced to make a save when Kerem Aktürkoglu shot (9th). The 35-year-old, who will probably have to make way for Neuer on Saturday against Darmstadt, was given more work than he would have liked. Two minutes later, Ulreich sent a cross forward, but Aktürkoglu did not accept the gift.

And it continued in only one direction. After a shot from Lucas Torreira just over the goal (24′), the luck ran out. Joshua Kimmich fouled Icardi in the penalty area, the Argentine took the penalty himself and converted very coolly with a Panenka penalty. The goalscorer, who had already scored ten times in nine games in the league, was in danger of missing out before the game with an ankle injury, but there was no sign of it on the pitch. According to broadcaster Prime Video, a noise level of 132 decibels was measured in the stadium during the goal, which was in the health-endangering range. Icardi after an unnecessary loss of the ball by Kimmich (45th + 1) and previously Aktürkoglu (38th) had further top chances. At halftime, 16:3 shots on goal and 57 percent of ball possession documented the unusual balance of power in favor of the Turks.

It couldn’t go on like this, it couldn’t. Bayern managed to relieve the pressure more in the second half – and almost immediately took the lead again. But Sané missed a pass from Coman in a promising position (50th). The Munich team gained more control of the game and became more and more dangerous. Goalkeeper Fernando Muslera (63′) saved a shot from Sané and was then powerless against superstar Kane. The English national team captain, who had not been seen for a long time, finally showed his goalscoring qualities after an assist from Musiala. There was no longer any sign of the hosts’ power football; instead, Musiala made the decision.

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