Bayern Cruise against Freiburg
June 20, 2020 However, all of these changes seemed to make no difference to the record champions unless it was to invigorate them. Cuisance and Singh both had excellent matches and provided a significant amount of energy to the team early on. The backline didn’t really seem to miss much of a beat either despite Alaba and Davies missing. The pressing was excellent and the team seemed very cohesive.
Fast Start
All of the action would take place in the first half. There were several good chances very early in the match, the best of which fell to Singh who saw his volley deflected by the Freiburg defense. Kimmich was the one who started off the scoring however with a nice setup by Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski would then go on to score off a rebound from a shot by Leon Goretzka to make it 2-0. Lucas Höler would get one back for the visitors, but Lewandowski would finish the scoring and the match minutes later with his 33rd Bundesliga goal of the season.
In truth, Bayern dominated the entire match from the get go. Apart from a few chances for Freiburg, there was never really much concern that Bayern wouldn’t win this tie easily. Thomas Müller had several good shots and near misses on setting the new Bundesliga assists record, but it was not meant to be.
Cruise Control
As entertaining and dominant as the first half was, the second half was utterly dull. Honestly, neither team looked all that interested in even being on the pitch after 45 minutes. A few players, including a motivated Müller, did try to make an impact on the scoreline, but Freiburg never really pushed the Munich side and the Bavarians seemed happy to win 3-1 with no apparent injuries.
One notable part of the second half was that Chris Richards and Jamal Musiala both made their Bundesliga debuts. Neither one of them really had much of a chance to make an impact, but it was an excellent chance to reward a few youth players with some first team experience. Sadly, that was about as much excitement as we got in the second half.
Lewandowski
While praise for the Pole this season is not in short supply, it nevertheless seems worthwhile adding more to the pile. The work he did throughout this match was incredible. All three goals went through him in some way. The hold up play and set up for Kimmich’s opener was clinical. The strength and awareness it takes to possess the ball on the spot and casually set up an oncoming midfielder is under appreciated. He then went and scored two classic striker goals. The first being a rebound where he put himself in perfect position and the second through a nice build up and cross from Lucas Hernandez which he just got a foot on to redirect in.
These two goals broke the all time record for Bundesliga goals by a non-German player. His total in all competitions this season now sits at 48 and he’s added another 6 assists. Regardless of what individual awards he does or does not win this year, there is no doubt in my mind that Robert Lewandowski has had the best season of any player in Europe.
