Match awards from Bayern Munich’s dominant win over Besiktas

Jersey swap: Fabricio Agosto Ramírez (GK). It was difficult choosing any player from Besiktas who was worthy of an award tonight, after what was a very below-average performance. After all, Bayern made the oldest team in competition look exactly that: old.

Photo by Andreas Gebert/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The one player who is worth mentioning is Fabricio. Before Bayern scored the 1:0, every single outfield Bayern player had taken a shot—not all on goal—without beating the Spanish keeper, including a close-range effort by Hummels that Fabri managed to scrape off the line. Of course, Fabri didn’t look quite so good in the second half, but he is the only player that Besiktas have to thank for not going into the return leg with a bigger deficit.

[Note: the only outfield player who showed sparks of offensive flair throughout the game was Anderson Talisca, who at the young age of 24 has a bright future ahead of him. Ricardo Quaresma had a couple of runs, and Vagner Love at least one decent chance, but in the second half they were nowhere to be found.]

Tip of the hat: Joshua Kimmich. Kimmich always looked dangerous going forward and didn’t stop from the first until the last minute. He was a driving force forward and the Bayern player with the third highest pass completion. Kimmich also provided the second most crosses and set up the third goal. All in all, while Bayern spent most of the time in the opponent’s half, he was the most active defender working forward.

Golf clap: Kingsley Coman. Tonight Adriano and Quaresma will have nightmares about Coman. The pair covering the Bavarians’ left flank couldn’t contain the young Frenchman at all in the first half. They instead resorted to fouls, which saw Quaresma getting booked.

On top of that, Coman was always working back and won the ball off Quaresma twice. When Bayern were struggling to find an opening goal, it was Coman who sped down the edge and worked his way into the box to set up the 1:0 at the end of the first half. He then went on to finish a Lewandowski pass himself to make it 2:0 after the break.

After Coman scored his goal he only had very few more scenes; perhaps he is still not 100% fit after being ill. The important part, however, is that he showed a great performance at the time when the team needed it most and that was while the opposition were still playing well.

Standing ovation: Robert Lewandowski. It was really close between Lewy and Müller for the top award, but the Pole dropped down to second because he couldn’t get himself free in the first half and only scored after the floodgates had been opened.

Nonetheless, Lewandowski was the one who very cleverly took the invitation of Vida’s slide tackle and left the ref with no choice but to send the Besiktas man off, giving Bayern over 70 minutes to play against 10 men.

Lewandowski moreover set up the second goal and scored the fourth and fifth himself sheerly by being in the right place at the right time before an almost open goal in both situations. That doesn’t make the goals any less good: part of a striker’s skillset is to get in those positions in the first place.

Meister of the match: Thomas Müller. Not much has to be said to this performance really: the numbers speak for themselves. Müller had the most shots on the team, scored twice, assisted on one himself and played the ball to Lewy who then set up another goal. Müller was directly involved in 4 out of 5 of Bayern's goals, led the team as the captain and could be found working all up and down the pitch.

There are only two players who have more goals than Müller (21) in the Champions League knockout rounds: Cristiano Ronaldo (56) and Lionel Messi (38). Is it safe to say that we are starting to see the old Müller come back after he got lost somewhere during Guardiola and Ancelotti? It is starting to look that way.