Match awards for Bayern’s 3-2 win overPaderborn

Bayern Munich picked up all three points on the road at Paderborn, in what ended up being a nervy affair. Bayern had the chances throughout the game to finish the game off, but allowed Pderborn to stay in it until the very end. Here are our match awards from Bayern’s 3-2 victory.

Jersey swap: Jamilu Collins

Down 3-1, Paderborn appeared to be finished. After a great corner was cleared out by Bayern’s defense, the ball came straight to Collins about ten yards outside the box. He took the shot and beat Neuer was cheating the other way, trying to see past the many bodies inside the box. This gave the game life again and made for a nervy ending. Honorable mention for the jersey swap goes to Kai Pröger, whose goal brought Paerborn back within a goal and inspired them to go all out to try to get a result out of the match.

Tip of the cap: Alphonso Davies

Davies came in as a halftime sub, replacing Lucas Hernandez at left-back. He was impressive in the way that he got up and down the field. Even with the lead, Bayern was pushing their full-backs up to try to score more. He also tracked back and frustrated Paderborn on defense. It is extremely tough to change your mindset from offense to defense, but Davies seems to have embraced the new role and is transitioning well.

Golf clap: Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski

Gnabry and Lewandowski both found the back of the net today. They also both missed great chances (some chances greater than others) that they could not capitalize on. You will see more hat-tricks out of Lewy than missed oppurtunies like the one that he had within 10 minutes. After a pass from Gnabry, Lewy had a wide-open goal, but instead it the outside of the post.

All in all great team-work in the set up and individual talent in the finish, led to both of their goals. Gnabry’s goal opened the scoring in the 15th minute after great teamwork inside the box. Lewy’s goal came in the 79th minute on his very last kick of the game. Lewy found himself one on one with the goalie with two defenders closing in. He was able to chip the goalie and put Bayern up 3-1 at the time.

Standing ovation: Jerome Boateng

Boateng was very impressive. He made timely tackles in the box, tracked down long balls before an attacker could get on the end of it, and cleared the ball out of dangerous areas when needed. His most impressive play from today, in my eyes, was when he was tracking down a ball in his defensive half. There was a Paderborn player right on his tail and the ball was bouncing a bit unpredictably. Rather than kick the ball back to Neuer, as the attacker was predicting, Boateng jumped over the ball and turned around with it and played it up-field into Bayern’s attacking half.

Meister of the match: Philippe Coutinho

Although Coutinho went quiet towards the end of the match, he was instrumental in all three Bayern goals today. After a great buildup, which involved a few Bayern players, Coutinho played the last ball to the goal-scoring Gnabry, giving the Brazilian the assist on the opening goal. Then in the 55th minute, Gnabry returned the favor and assisted Coutinho’s second goal in a Bayern jersey, to give Bayern a 2-0 lead at the time. After conceding a goal, Bayern caught Paderborn playing too far forward. Süle played an amazing through ball which Coutinho ran at and then left for Lewy. The dummy-run made the defenders hesitate and Lewandowski was able to finish the play by chipping the keeper. Overall, this was the best showing in a Bayern jersey for Philippe Coutinho.