Manuel Neuer’s nightmare start against FC Augsburg was impossible to ignore, but Max Eberl believes Bayern Munich’s wastefulness in front of goal was a much bigger reason for Saturday’s frustrating 2-2 draw.
The Bayern Munich captain made a costly error just 8.4 seconds into the Bavarian derby, setting a new Bundesliga record for the fastest goal conceded. After a poor first touch, Neuer attempted to recover the situation, but took too much of a risk, allowing Robin Fellhauer to capitalize and put
Augsburg ahead almost immediately.
However, Bayern Munich’s board member for sport was not interested in placing the entire blame on his goalkeeper. Eberl acknowledged Neuer’s mistake while pointing out that the team had several opportunities to put the game beyond FC Augsburg’s reach.
“He made a mistake and took a poor first touch. Then he tried to fix it but took too much of a risk. We made life difficult for ourselves with a series of mistakes. Manu was involved in that, but so were others. We had enough chances to win the game anyway,” Eberl explained (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).
It is a fair assessment. Neuer’s error gave Bayern Munich an early problem to solve, but the champions had more than enough opportunities to secure all three points. The team’s inability to convert those chances ultimately proved just as costly as the goalkeeper’s early blunder.
For Bayern Munich, the takeaway should be straightforward—Neuer needs to move on from his mistake, while the attackers must take greater responsibility for their finishing. Blaming the goalkeeper is easy, but wasting chances against FC Augsburg is not exactly a recipe for a comfortable afternoon.
Bayern Munich had the opportunities to win, but could not take advantage of them.
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