Monday, 18.11.2024
An interesting tactical battle between two of the top teams on the planet. Pep Guardiola finally really beats Roger Schmidt with a very interesting and fluid system. Leverkusen executed their usual game plan of intense pressing and lay-off/combination focus in transitions, but Bayern was able to nullify both of these aspects in a unique way.
Another 4 goals, another Bundesliga victory as Tuchel took his side to the top of the Bundesliga with a dominant win over newly-promoted Ingolstadt.
Against a defensively excellent Hoffenheim side, Bayern struggled to victory which came late on through Lewandowski after yet another brilliant contribution by Douglas Costa in the build-up.
Following an eventful first half one would’ve been forgiven for thinking that we were still in the 2014/2015 season.
In stark contrast to the opening game of the 2014/2015 Bundesliga season, Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund put in a dominant performance against the Foals to win 4-0.
Following a brilliantly promising pre-season, Douglas Costa kept his place on the starting 11 in the wide left position in a game where Bayern showed some issues in their possession game despite Pep’s attempts to amend it.
Guardiola fielded his team in a 3-3-3-1 formation against Milan, reminiscent of shapes seen at the Allianz last season as well as in his final campaign at Barcelona.
Despite leading for the majority of the second half after Robben opened the scoring, Guardiola is still without a Super Cup victory for Bayern as Wolfsburg stole a victory on penalties after Niklas Bendtner equalised late on.
The term ‘compactness’ has been somewhat of a buzzword in football tactics over the past few seasons,
Following what was very much a balanced match overall, Jurgen Klopp now has the opportunity to end his time in Dortmund with silverware, going through to the Pokal final after two slips cost Bayern in the shootout.