Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Bayern Munich: Talking points as Leverkusen smash Bundesliga champions to extend title race lead

Bayer Leverkusen comprehensively beat Bayern Munich in the derby of the season in the Bundesliga at the BayArena on Saturday, with Bayern loanee Josip Stanisic (18′), Alex Grimaldo (50′) and Jeremie Frimpong (90+5′) all on target for the home side.

It was a very important victory for Xabi Alonso’s team, who appear unstoppable as they charge towards finally dethroning the Bavarians as the kings of German football.

The game

It was certainly a deserved victory for Leverkusen as well. They really put in a top performance throughout, using all the right spaces, attacking and repeatedly hurting Bayern wherever they felt the champions vulnerable.

Stretching the pitch to its full length, it’s no surprise all three goals were scored by wide players, though it should be said that Granit Xhaka and Robert Andrich really put in a shift in the middle of the park, the defensive trio of Edmond Tabsoba, Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie kept the likes of Harry Kane, Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala unusually quiet, and the creativity of Florian Wirtz, along with the pace of Nathan Tella and Amine Adli, troubled the Bayern defence greatly.

It was lovely to see Leverkusen exert so much control over the proceedings against a team like Bayern Munich, who don’t take too kindly to being outplayed in such a manner. In the end, the defending champions were arguably lucky to lose only by three goals – had not Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae shown their individual quality at the back on several occasions, as well as Manuel Neuer in goal, it could’ve been several more goals in their net.

Bayern never really created anything worthy of mention. The only situations when Lukas Hradecky might have felt threatened were hopeful efforts from range by Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich, but even those barely troubled the Leverkusen keeper as one went over the bar and the other straight at him, with an offside call given against Bayern in the buildup.

Leverkusen fired 14…

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Author : Veselin Trajkovic

Publish date : 2024-02-11 14:16:09

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