Five observations on Bayern's 2-2 draw at Juventus

1. Was that Juventus or Ingolstadt in the first half?

If not for the very distinctive black-and-white striped jerseys, casual fans could have been excused if they thought they were watching Bayern playing against a small market minnow Bundesliga club like Ingolstadt, who let the opponent have the ball, and just pulled all 11 players behind the ball, hoping for the odd counter, and blindly booting the ball away when under pressure.  But this was the Serie A leaders, owners of a 15-game winning streak (broken this past weekend in a scoreless draw against Bologna), and one of the top teams in Europe.

If Massimiliano Allegri had to do his strategy over for the first half, do you think he would do THAT again?  Not surprisingly, the Juve coach changed his tactics to a much more aggressive approach in the second half.

2. Hot and Cold

Joshua Kimmich was playing the biggest game of his career (so far), and looked so relaxed that you would have never guessed that this was his first Champions League knock-out round game.  Essentially error-free in the first half, he played a very solid game, anticipating passes well, and distributing the ball calmly out of the back, and even creating a highlight-reel cheeky move to trick Paul Pogba out of his shorts.

But, things went south in the second half, where a poorly trapped ball by the midfielder-turned-center-back dropped to a Juventus attacker, leading to Paulo Dybala's goal to bring the Italians to within one, and breathe life into the stadium.  Kimmich also reacted slowly to Morata's header/cross, allowing substitute Stefano Sturaro to get to the ball first, and equalize.  Philipp Lahm takes some of the blame, for turning the ball over unnecessarily to Pogba, leading up to the goal.

3. High possession and aggressive pressing only requires three defenders

Although Bayern lined up with what looked like a classic four-man backline (Lahm, Kimmich, Alaba, Bernat), it almost immediately turned into a three-man setup, with Lahm and Bernat moving forward, and Arturo Vidal dropping back in between Kimmich on the right and Alaba on the left.  Considering how little the Juventus forwards saw the ball in the first hour, that turned out to be plenty.

4. Juan Cuadrado was just trying out some new legs

Apart from being limited in his effectiveness on the right wing, and somewhat lazy in tracking back, what stood out most about the Columbian winger was the difficulty he had staying on his feet.  Even the slightest touch (and sometimes, not even that) had him falling and rolling around on the field like a sniper had shot him (Aerosmith's Rag Doll was playing in my head).  Some of those embellishments even made Arjen Robben blush.  But, apparently it worked, since he was able to coax a yellow card out of the referee's pocket for Douglas Costa, on what was a very minor foul.

5. Bayern will be kicking themselves for letting this one get away

Possession in the 70% range (even 77% early in the first half), to go with quality scoring chances, in the first hour translated to a very deserved 2-0 lead, and probably should have been more.  Taking their foot off the gas, and allowing Juventus back into the game for the last half hour will hopefully not come back to haunt Bayern.  Two away goals are still huge, and the advantage is still in Bayern's favor, but the situation coming into the return game at the Allianz Arena could have been so much better.