Bayern Munich have rarely looked good this season. But on Tuesday night at the Emirates, playing against type was a productive ploy for the soon-to-be-deposed German champions.
The visitors approached the first leg of the quarter-final against Mikel Arteta’s Champions League novices as underdogs rather than European nobles, happy to struggle with just 40% possession and relying on more counter-attacks. or less sophisticated. Their two goals came not from one of those beautiful Harry Kane reverse balls, but from a desperate clearance punt and a brilliant long-distance dribble from Leroy Sane.
Aggressive, tenacious and even a little dirty at times, Bayern rose to the occasion by lowering their aesthetic standards. “We don’t always have to celebrate football,” said unused substitute Thomas Muller after the 2-2 draw. “Football is what happens in both boxes. How to get there and with what amount of possession doesn’t matter. It’s always good to play with a certain humility. It helped us take the game as it is today.
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One could observe the respect, perhaps even fear, that heightened the visitors’ senses at the prospect of visiting the best team in the Premier League. Bayern were ready to suffer.
Unlike countless games this season and last, conceding a goal did not result in a total collapse but a spirited fightback led by the irrepressible Sane, who defied his many critics with a performance brimming with commitment and character .
It was ironic but entirely fitting for this match that the gifted but sometimes insignificant 28-year-old set the tone for this determined display from the Bavarians.
“Leroy had some incredible moments, especially in the first half,” Joshua Kimmich said. “While everyone was defending, he carried the ball forward. He was one of the decisive players, he immediately put us back in the match (after being down 1-0).
Serge Gnabry, another member of Germany’s much-criticised group of internationals, also played a key role in scoring the 1-1 equalizer before leaving the field with a hamstring injury in the second half.
Bayern’s rope-a-dope tactics in a big European knockout match are vaguely reminiscent of the way they blocked and tackled their way to a penalty shootout triumph in the 2001 Champions League final. But there are also more recent echoes. Tuchel’s first match in charge of Munich, a 4-2 victory over Borussia Dortmund just over a year ago, was notable for the title holders’ strategic passivity off the ball and reliance on transitions, just like the 3-0 victory against Stuttgart. in December.
These two victories were the most convincing matches against domestic opposition during the former Chelsea manager’s reign at the Allianz Arena, raising the question of why Bayern have been unable to make it work this version of Tuchelball more often.
There are two answers. Firstly, for this to work you need a classy opposition that wants to control the game in possession themselves and push Bayern away. There simply aren’t enough teams in the Bundesliga willing or able to play this way. Against Cologne on Saturday, Tuchel’s men will once again have far less space to exploit, and their chronic problems in the build-up and final third combination play will come to the fore.
Second, any team that wants to survive long periods without the ball must be committed to fighting and to each other, a cohesive unit of selfless individuals. Bayern, blighted by more than a decade of virtually unchallenged dominance in the league, were anything but – with and without possession. Hunger and the desire to stick together only reliably manifested themselves on European nights, when an exciting feeling of real danger took hold.
Well after midnight, at their Marylebone hotel banquet for the few hundred VIPs and sponsors allowed to attend despite UEFA’s ban on Bavarian fans traveling, CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen congratulated the team for having “shown his true face”.
But in reality, this was an exception and not the norm. Bayern have a chance to progress against an Arsenal team that performs better thanks to demonstrating the basics of “passion, dedication and quality”, as Tuchel put it – the very qualities that have been lacking throughout their miserable national season.
Whatever the result of next week’s second leg, the team must rediscover the joys of hard work on more ordinary occasions if they are to restore their hegemony in the Bundesliga.
(Top photo: Ian Kington/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)