Bayern Munich fought tooth and nail against a resolute, well-organized Bayer Leverkusen side in the DFB-Pokal round of 16 clash at the Allianz Arena, but being reduced to 10-men in the first half due to a Manuel Neuer challenge on Jeremi Frimpong made it too tall of a task for the Rekordmeister. Nathan Tella’s goal for Die Werkself in the 69th minute with a finely-taken header to slot home a cross put in from Alex Grimaldo sealed the fate for Xabi Alonso’s side, putting them through to the quarterfinals in defense of winning the title last season.
Neuer’s rash decision to come out and clatter into Frimpong on a ball played over the top from Jonathan Tah in the 17th minute made a difficult task far more complicated for Bayern and will be one of the leading headlines taken away from the match. Even having been reduced to 10 men, Vincent Kompany’s side shone quite well for themselves and were tactically sound for the most part after the Belgian had to sacrifice Leroy Sané to bring on backup keeper Daniel Peretz, who stood to his task several times of asking.
Bayern registered a total of 2 shots on target, but came close in either half to finding the back of the net; once with a Kim min-Jae header and once with a curling effort right at the death from Michael Olise that very nearly sent the match into extra time. Had Neuer not been shown his marching orders in the first half, it could have been a different result, but Bayern have now been knocked out of the competition prior to the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season — simply not good enough.
On a positive note, Aleksandar Pavlović was named in the team sheet for the first time since sustaining his injury early on in a 3-0 Bundesliga win over VfB Stuttgart. He officially marked his return to action when he replaced Leon Goretzka in the 73rd minute when Kompany made tactical changes to try to get Bayern back in the match.
After the match, Pavlović expressed his delight to be back on the pitch after a considerable injury layover and was pleased with the fight his side showed in the losing effort. “It was a lot of fun when I came on. But it’s a very disappointing evening as we really wanted to advance. We did very well with ten men and showed character,” he explained after the full-time whistle (via FCBayern.com).
Photo by Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images
While Bayern is now out of the race for the DFB-Pokal, they still remain top of the Bundesliga table and within reach of an automatic qualification spot for the Champions League knockout stages. There’s plenty to play for and it is imperative that Kompany uses all of the positive character that was on display in the loss to Leverkusen to push the squad forward and help them not lose concentration despite the mishap.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s shocking 1-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal? Then you came to the right place. Check out the Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show on Patreon, Spotify or below:
