Match awards from Bayern Munich’s 2:0 win over Al Ahly!

Jersey swap: Hamdi Fathi

Hamdi Fathi had a relatively good game. He stood out of his teammates tonight and often pressed hard Bayern Munich’s players and disrupted their attacks. He played a physically competitive game and often fouled the opposition, but the referee did not mind. Beside him, Al Ahly’s goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy had a fairly good match but ended the match by conceding two goals.

Der Bomber: Robert Lewandowski

The Polish striker had a decent match tonight in Qatar. Even though he missed some good chances, he managed to score two goals and made his impact on the match. Al Ahly’s defense often pressed him and left him little room to move around the pitch. Lewandowski helped his teammates create some extra space by moving to the wings and dragging defenders with him. And again, the Pole proved that he has the ‘nose’ for goal since his second goal tonight was truly interesting — he managed to sneak around the defenders, and everyone forgot about him.

Fußballgott: Serge Gnabry

Gnabry had a good match tonight, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary. He was a dangerous presence as he often used his speed to run past defenders and his powerful shots to try and surprise the keeper. Although, we didn’t see much from him in the second half, it was understandable as the whole team must be very fatigued with the long flight from Munich to Doha. Although Gnabry didn’t do anything spectacular, neither did any of his teammates in midfield, excluding Joshua Kimmich. It was a slow match for Bayern’s midfield without many stand-out performances.

Der Kaiser: Alphonso Davies

The Canadian youngster is slowly getting back to his usual form. Although he was far from a stellar performance we saw last season, his defending is getting better, and his attacking prowess shined again. Most importantly, he was stable in the defense tonight. He used his speed intelligently and also was very well-positioned throughout the match. He made quick runs and neutralized Al Ahly’s attacks on the left flank. When he attacks, he still has some work to do. Most importantly, his passing is often underwhelming, but tonight he made some improvement and finished the match with 94% accurate passes. He also had a few good chances tonight, with one shot, in particular, going just past the left post.

Meister of the Match: Joshua Kimmich

The birthday boy! Kimmich had a very good match, he bossed the midfield and made his presence felt throughout the match. He often stopped some dangerous counter-attacks from Al Ahly, and generally disrupted a lot of their passes. His passing was also on point tonight, as he made six key passes and finished the match with 91% passing accuracy. His crosses were a thing of beauty, almost all of them were quite dangerous. One downside is that he lost possession 20 times this evening, and he could work on it more in the future.

All in all, not a stellar performance from Bayern’s squad, but nobody can blame them, especially after the excruciating flight to Doha. The most important thing is that nobody got injured and that Bayern managed to keep a clean sheet.