Bayern Munich 5-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Initial reactions and observations

Bayern Munich 5-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Initial Reactions and Observations

• I’ll never understand coaches like Hansi Flick who refuse to use all of their subs when up by three goals . What’s the point? You’ve got the biggest game of the season on Tuesday where, if you win, you will have essentially clinched the title. You’re also playing the second best team in the league on that day. Why not give your big players some rest and play guys like Michael Cuisance, Oliver Batista Meier, or Joshua Zirkzee for 15-20 minutes? What a waste.
• Today was a terrific match from Thomas Muller. His goal and assist catupolted Bayern into their early lead, and he probably could’ve grabbed a second goal in the second half had he controlled a pass in the penalty area better. Still, Bayern fans have to be thrilled that he’s in such good form coming out of the Coronavirus break.
• Bayern’s defense seemed a bit out of sorts at times today. Sure, the two goals coming off of corners obviously leads to poor defending; however, there were times throughout the match, especially in the second half, where things just seemed to not be clicking at the back. While you can get away with a lot of those mistakes against Frankfurt, Dortmund will likely punish you for them.
• The objective is clear on Tuesday. If Bayern beat Dortmund, the title race is almost certainly finished.

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90’: Mercy stoppage right at the 90 minute mark. Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2.

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85’: Joshua Zirzkee and Michael Cuisance are on for Kingsley Coman and Joshua Kimmich.

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76’: Frankfurt bring on Erik Durm and Bas Dost for Danny da Costa and Andre Silva.

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74’: TOR! Own Goal! Bayern re-establish their three goal lead.

Hinteregger grabs his third goal of the game. Unfortunately, this one went into the back of his own net.

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73’: Lucas Hernandez comes on for Jerome Boateng. Boateng has seemed to come up limping after a few big runs, but he seems fine.

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70’: Frankfurt are making two substitutions, bringing on Daichi Kamada and Djibril Sow for Sebastian Rode and Mijat Gacinovic.

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64’: Serge Gnabry comes on for Ivan Perisic.

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60’: TOR! Alphonhso Davies puts Bayern back up by two! Bayern are up 4-2.

The Canadian dribbled across the Frankfurt penalty area before Gelson Fernandes intercepted his pass, but Fernandes played the ball to nobody! Davies quickly grabbed the ball and shot it past Trapp for the 4-2 lead.

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55’: Tor! Hinteregger makes it 2-3! Holy moly. What is happening here? Bayern concede another corner, and Hinteregger heads it home to make it 2-3. The three goal lead has nearly completely evaporated.

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52’: Tor! Hinteregger pulls one back for Frankfurt! Yikes. Bayern’s defense left Neuer all alone on a corner kick, and Martin Hinteregger just smashed the loose ball past Neuer to make it 1-3.

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50’: While Coman picked up the assist on Lewandowski’s goal, Muller deserves a lot of credit. Kimmich’s pas out to Muller was relatively poor, and it arrived waist-high. However, Muller used a first touch just to loft the ball out into space beyond the defense into the path of a sprinting Coman. From there, a cross into the box found Lewandowski for the 3-0 lead.

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46’: TOR! Robert Lewandowski makes it 3-0!

Lewandowski powers a header past Trapp to make it 3-0! That’s the big striker’s 27th goal of the season, putting him just 13 behind Gerd Muller for the Bundesliga’s all-time record. Is there a chance that he gets there?

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46’: The second half is underway, and we’re kicking the ball around the Allianz again. Frankfurt brought on Timothy Chandler for Evan N’Dicka at the break.

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Halftime Observations and Analysis

• The first half was mostly an exercise in maintaining possession for Bayern with Frankfurt offering little in attack. Most of what Frankfurt did get going forward was easily snuffed out by a combination of Boateng, Alaba, and Neuer. While the German number one was active in the Bayern goal, he was rarely called upon to do anything more than play sweeper keeper.
• The star of the match so far is definitely Muller. He notched a goal and an assist, pushing Bayern toward their advantage. You wonder if Hansi Flick will want to bring Muller off early in the second half with the opportunity to basically clinch the title on Tuesday.
• Goretzka’s goal was a great all-around team goal from Bayern. A great dummy from Perisic on Alaba’s pass played Muller into space. All that was left from there was Goretzka to smash home Muller’s cross. Goretzka’s always going to be the odd-man out in my preferred two-man midfield, so when he does get starts like today, he must make them count. So far, so good.

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45’: Halftime: Bayern Munich 2-0 Eintracht Frankfurt

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40’: TOR! Muller makes it 2-0!

Muller controls a short cross into the box from Davies and finishes with a roundhouse kick. It’s a really nice finish from Muller to give him a goal and an assist in the half.

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30’: There’s not a lot happening in this one at the moment. While most of the action is happening in Frankfurt’s half of the field, Bayern haven’t managed to threaten Trapp in a bit.

There was a rather lengthy discussion by the commentators about Alphonso Davies maybe never playing in a World Cup due to Canada’s ability (or inability) to get there; however, there is a chance that Canada gets an automatic bid for the 2026 World Cup that Canada, USA, and Mexico are hosting.

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20’: The assist on Goretzka’s goal was Muller’s league-leading 17th assist of the season. It’s been a terrific season for Muller, and while he’s been a bit down in goals this season, he’s more than made up for it in the number of assists that he’s notched.

Bayern remain in firm control so far.

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17’: TOR! Leon Goretzka puts Bayern up 1-0 with a great finish!

Thomas Muller whipped a cross into the area, and Goretzka ran onto the ball and smashed it into the back of the net to give Bayern a deserved 1-0 advantage.

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10’: We’re ten minutes into this one, and it really feels like Bayern have a firm grip on this game so far. Robert Lewandowski has already hit the crossbar, and it looks like a goal is coming for Bayern sooner rather than later at this rate.

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Kickoff: We’re underway!

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One hour until kickoff: Lineups are out! Looks like Serge Gnabry has been rested, while Ivan Perisic and Kingsley Coman get their first start since the lockdown.

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When you have as much to prove as Bayern Munich, pretty much every game is a revenge game. There’s no time to relax, no games where you can just phone it in. Yet, even by these standards, sometimes you get a fixture that is more enticing than the rest. Few Bundesliga games have that allure for Bayern, but the game against Eintracht Frankfurt is one of them.

Even before Niko Kovac took over in Munich, Bayern-Frankfurt games always had an edge to them. Now, given what happened in the Hinrunde, expect some fireworks. Players like Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski, and Joshua Kimmich — all fiery hot competitors in their own right — will be raring to prove how far the team has come since that 5-1 loss at the Commerzbank Arena.

It’s Bayern time.

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Match Info

Location: Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany

Time: 6:30 pm local time, 12:30 pm EST

TV/streaming: Fubo.tv, Find Your Country

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