Bayern Ease Past Bratislava
January 30, 2025 Vincent Kompany made several changes to the lineup with Manuel Neuer, Sacha Boey, Kim Min Jae, Josip Stanisic, Joshua Kimmich, Aleksander Pavlovic, Michael Olise, Leroy Sane, Thomas Muller, Mathys Tel and Harry Kane comprising the starting eleven.
Three Things We Noticed
Find the Finishing
Bayern were in control of this match almost from the whistle. Muller scored in just the eighth minute to give the Bavarians an early lead and it certainly looked as though the Munich side might run away with things.
However, that never really materialized. Despite 75% possession and 35 shot attempts, it would take another 55 minutes for Kane to find Bayern’s second goal before Coman finished the scoring 21 minutes after that.
This has become a somewhat familiar theme with this team as they have often created a lot of chances and controlled play but fail to finish. While every team goes through ups and downs through the year when it comes to finishing, this has been a bad stretch for Bayern and Kompany needs to find some solutions.
Too Comfortable
With all of that said, they also appeared to be missing a sense of urgency. Yes they dominated the play but it never really felt like they wanted to put eight or nine past Bratislava on a night where all they could do was pray for other teams to slip up and score as many goals as possible.
Some of that is of course luck related and I don’t question that they were putting in effort but they still appeared far too passive for most of the match.
This is something they cannot get into the habit of as the season progresses. The next few weeks will have massive consequences to their fate this season. They are going to have to play well, be focused and start finishing their chances if they are going to come away on the better side of these ties.
Into the Playoffs
As a result of this win and more so the loss last week, Bayern will not advance automatically to the round of 16. They will instead face either Manchester City, who barely squeezed in, or Celtic in their knockout round matchup.
Bayern arguably could have used the extra time off as well as these matches will come as they take on Leverkusen and Frankfurt in the league with Stuttgart following shortly after.
It’s going to be a tough month of February for Munich and as I said earlier, they’re going to have to be on top of their game to get through this schedule. City would especially be a tough challenge despite their current form and record.
For Kompany and his team, this will be the time to silence the naysayers and prove that they can win big games against big teams. Any failure in this time will only add to the noise and could cause further problems in the future.
