They made hard work of it, but Bayern Munich secured a desperately-needed win in the Champions League by virtue of a 1-0 victory over SL Benfica at the Allianz Arena. The kickoff being delayed by 15 minutes due to Munich public transport issues underlined the pressure that was on the Rekordmeister to get a result and turn their fortunes around in the competition after two consecutive losses against the likes off Aston Villa and Barcelona.
Jamal Musiala’s goal in the 67th minute of play secured the three points for Vincent Kompany’s side after having a level of control for most of the match, perhaps feeling a bit hard done not to have won the match by more than just one goal. The result took Bayern up to 17th in the Champions League table in a playoff spot for the knockout stages with 4 more matches to go.
On the overall balance, Bayern dominated Benfica on the night and quite arguably should have scored more than once in either half. They recorded a total of 10 shots on target to Benfica’s 0 and had the lion’s share of possession with a numerical total of 74%, completing 872 passes to Benfica’s 314. Bruno Lage’s side perhaps came to Munich knowing they would be digging in the trenches and defending for most of the night, but Bayern did good enough to prevent them from getting too many chances on the counterattack, which has often times been their undoing.
After the match, Kompany expressed his delight at having earned a needed three points, adding that he did not mind too much that his side only won 1-0. “Sometimes it’s good to win like this (1-0), even though of course we always prefer to win by 3,4 or 5 goals. I thought we controlled the game very well. Sometimes the final pass doesn’t always work. We didn’t score an early goal, so we knew we had to stay calm and patient. We did that well. It was a good Champions League game and a good win,” he told DAZN Germany after the final whistle (via @iMiaSanMia).
With the Benfica result, it is now four wins on the bounce ever since Bayern’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the Catalans’ home towards the end of last month. Additionally, it is also Bayern’s and Manuel Neuer’s 4th clean sheet in a row, adding on to the 5-0 win over VfL Bochum, the 4-0 win over Mainz, and the 3-0 win over Union Berlin.
Photo by Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Images
For Kompany, he will certainly be pleased with not having conceded a goal from their last 4 matches, but this is not something he ever felt his side was not capable of achieving. “There’s no particular secret for that. Since the game against Tottenham in pre-season, I felt that the boys are capable of that. Now we have to stay calm, we did well so far but we can always do better. There are always some adjustments. I have confidence in my players. And we also have a few other good defenders who are unavailable at the moment,” he explained in the post-match press conference (via @iMiaSanMia).
