Bayern Munich triumphed 3-0 over SL Benfica on the road in Lisbon on Wednesday evening. It was the German champions’ first UEFA Women’s Champions League win of the season after a 2-2 draw with Manchester City last week. If that match was characterized by a second-half collapse, this one was just the opposite: a somewhat sluggish performance turned on its head in its final phase, with three spectacular goals lighting the way and carrying the day.
Trouble in the attack?
Some things have not changed. As we covered in the City
preview, this is still a Bayern team that can control the play all day long without, it seems, doing anything more than that.
It’s one thing to be unlucky in front of goal or to come up against an out-of-her-mind goalkeeper’s performance. Too often, though, we see Bayern dominate possession but simply reach the final third without any ideas. Dangerous crosses sometimes float across the goal without even the slightest attempt from a Bayern attacker to get on the end of them. And this time, rather than just a bad decision or a poorly weighted pass — though there was that, too — Bayern attackers in promising phases did not even appear to weigh their options before stubbornly and fruitlessly kicking the ball straight into a defender’s body.
Or, as was the case a few times for Pernille Harder, she found herself in such a tantalizingly good position in the box that she took too much time thinking about it, and eventually took too many touches until she wound up in trouble.
It’s hard to put a finger exactly on what is going on, not least because once the floodgates opened, Bayern started to look unstoppable. Perhaps it is players like Harder, who won the official Player of the Match honors and who has bounced between the No. 10 and No. 9 roles, sometimes in the same game, taking on too much mental and physical load. Or it is a team under enough pressure about its early-season wobbles that its players find themselves lacking confidence in moments where conviction is required.
In any case, it is easy to say given the result that all’s well that ends well. Still, this seems like an area Bayern need to diagnose and start finding better solutions. You can’t hero-ball against everyone for the win.
Whither the subs?
To wit, while Bayern was withering and wilting and otherwise writhing about, head coach José Barcala remained hesitant to use his bench. The Spaniard has options: Alara (69’), Edna Imade (84’), and Sophie Proost (89’) all made it on while the likes of Vanessa Gilles, Sarah Mattner-Trembleau, Sarah Zadrazil stayed unused.
But Barcala seems comfortable when Bayern control without finding the net, as if on balance the breakthrough just a matter of time. However, against Benfica, it appeared much more as though a change was necessary to produce the impact and it would have been better to come earlier.
Alara’s introduction in the 69th minute came only due to striker Jovana Damnjanović‘s injury. The Serbian international had put in a hard day’s work and taken a few too many knocks in what was a combative affair all around. But while Alara was not even at her personal best — a couple of carelessly errant passes come to mind — just the difference in look seemed to change everything.
Almost straight away she was involved, at the center of a flowing Bayern team move featuring multiple backheel passes — her own ought to have been intercepted but wasn’t — that resulted in Pernille Harder, suddenly unleashed, getting on the ball unmarked in the box. Harder’s shot was credible and forced a good save, but any wider and it would have been a goal.
As for players like Proost, who came on for the indefatigable Linda Dallmann at wing, it is simply a case of needing more minutes. Bayern and Barcala need to develop options they can rely on to come off the bench. A few minutes here and there won’t cut it. Barcala’s made just three subs out of five today and only two against City. Where can these players go if they won’t get a crack at the UWCL lights in the league phase?
Big Game Bühl’s still got it
The story of this game, of course, is all about Klara Bühl. Harder may have won the POTM honors, but frankly had too many tame shots and confused moments in front of goal. Bühl did not have the best night either — that is, until she did, and when she did, she broke the game wide open.
This was a Benfica team that were threatening to snatch one from Bayern, remember. Giulia Gwinn’s giveaway in the first half could easily have been a goal; the second half began with a warning flare, and at the hour mark a cross found its way to the head of Chandra Davidson at point-blank range in front of Ena Mahmutovic’s goal. The score in all these moments was 0-0.
And Bühl herself was well-contained on the left wing. She floated a half-dangerous looking cross or two in that first half without finding takers, and rarely got space to work with. The one time she did look ready to rumble on the break came just before the half-time whistle, and she fouled a defender trying to take down Linda Dallmann’s ball over the top.
After Alara’s substitution though, Bühl seemed to be given more license to come out from of her shell, sitting in either more central or more advanced positions instead of dropping down to left wingback territory just to receive. It was here that in the 74th minute, tucking into the left side of central midfield, she made an off-the-shoulder sprint forward to slip by her markers and latch onto a Momoko Tanikawa through-ball. Then, with very much a “fine, I’ll do it”, take-matters-into-her-own-hands energy, she walloped her shot in from range — the whole Benfica defensive line ahead of her — and beat Lena Pauels with just a little help from the post.
That was the moment the game flipped fully on its head. All of a sudden, Bayern could do everything it wanted, while Benfica slumped and slumped and slumped. Bühl and Bayern, suddenly alive, poured on the chances — if 3-0 felt inevitable, it was only due to a little over-eagerness (leading to overcooked passes in threatening phases) that the second and third goals did not come sooner. Benfica, meanwhile, took too long on a corner in the 83rd minute and got it waved off into a Bayern goal kick.
In the end, that’s just what big-time players do. And in players like Bühl, Bayern’s got big-time in spades.
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