Very few people expected Jonas Urbig to start Bayern Munich’s return fixture against Atalanta Bergamo. He suffered a concussion in the late stages of the Bavarians’ first leg against the Italian side and there were doubts that 8 days would be enough. Concussions can, after all, take multiple weeks to heal from. Due to injuries ruling Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich out of action, as well, there were many who believed that 16-year-old Leonard Prescott would make his debut for the club in the UCL knockout
tie.
But Urbig miraculously recovered in time for the match and put in a splendid performance to help Bayern to a 4-1 victory. Speaking after the match, as captured by Bayern’s official website, Urbig explained the thought that went into whether he was ready for the match.
“It’s obviously been a different week to normal. Because of the concussion, I had to do everything step by step and follow the protocol. That’s important too. I then made the decision for myself that I could play today. It was possible according to the protocol, and I had a good feeling after the final training yesterday,” said Urbig.
It resulted in his good performance, but there were also aspects of the game that frustrated the 22-year-old: “It’s part of our game that we often keep the opponents deep in their own half. That also results in counter situations, though, where our defensive line is very high. In that situation I had to intervene and keep the ball. Obviously it’s still annoying when you concede a goal, especially from a corner. But we scored 10 goals over the two games, so you have to put that into perspective to a degree.”
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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