In the first round of the just-concluded Champions League group stage, Bayern faced Atletico Madrid at home. The former has created a number of terrifying goals and winning streak records in the past half year, and the latter is known as the strongest defense in Europe. However, under everyone's high expectations, the direction of the game was unexpected. I originally thought that Bayern would be in an offensive and defensive dilemma like it faced Sevilla in the European Super Cup. Who knew that from the first goal, Bayern's offense was out of control like mercury falling from the ground.
In fact, from the starting point of view, both sides have their main players absent. Relatively speaking, Bayern, which only lacks a winger, has a more complete framework. Flick replaced it with the idea of ??Muller playing wide and Tolisso in the middle. The two wings of the past fly together. Atletico Madrid is really struggling to make a living without rice. Costa, Saul and Jimenez on the central axis are all absent due to injuries. Simeone is also stretched in terms of adjustment space, and lacks backup when falling behind.
Of course, Atletico Madrid's performance in this game was not as bad as expected. In fact, Atletico Madrid created a good opportunity at the beginning. Lodi crossed the goal from the left, and Suarez outflanked him at the back point. Almost scored. Moreover, this attack reflected Atletico Madrid's offensive thinking throughout the game - using the space when Pavard attacked, Carrasco and Lodi on the left continuously covered the sides to form a local two-on-one situation, and then used space to pass to find the target. Suarez outflanks in the middle, Herrera or Felix inserts from behind, and Llorente swings from the right to the center. This style of play actually created many opportunities in subsequent games, but failed to convert.
A classic saying will appear again at this time, "There is a penalty for wasting opportunities." In fact, after Bayern entered the state in about ten minutes, the high pressure system gradually showed its effect. Before the first goal, Kimmich immediately intercepted the ball from Felix's feet after the last attack (Gretzka's long shot popped up). At this time, Felix did not put any pressure on Kimmich and scored. Kimmich with the ball attracted the attention of almost all defenders on the opposite side. At this time, Kimmich found Koeman at the back point with a long diagonal pass. Koeman stopped the ball and shot to the far corner to complete the goal.
In this game, Koeman fully showed the state of the Champions League finals. He was more calm and calm after taking the ball. Although his passing footwork was not much improved compared to before, but in the The choice of timing to distribute the ball after dribbling has matured a lot in the past two years. The second goal came from Koeman's pass after a short observation. Goretzka outflanked the ball at the back point and scored vigorously. For the last goal, Koeman also used his excellent speed and dribbling skills to shake off the opposing defenders and score the goal.
From a tactical perspective, the effect of Flick using Muller to pull out the side is that the right-side attack is relatively unable to go deep. During several counterattacks, Tolisso played an important linking role in the middle instead of Muller, getting the ball in the middle and quickly splitting the sides - although Koeman and Lucas were more often on the left. Compared with Goretzka, Tolisso actually has a lot of experience in the attacking midfielder position, having played this position while playing for Lyon before. Interestingly, Tolisso has been almost fixed at the midfielder position since he came to Bayern in 2017, rarely playing the No. 10 position. His performance in this game also provided an option for Flick's subsequent tactical arrangements. In addition to several excellent points in this game, Tolisso also played an excellent world wave to help the team expand the score.
Lewandowski also appeared on the right side many times in this game, crossing positions with Muller in order to attract the opponent's center back through such cross movements. However, the defensive position of Atletico Madrid is relatively stable. The effect of the team is not too obvious, so the right attack relies more on Muller to pull in the opponent's full-back Lodi and then make room for Pavard to cross. However, the quality of Pavard's crosses in this game is not very good. Ideal, I couldn't find my teammates 3 times.
Finally, let’s talk about the defensive end. In fact, it was a bit of luck that allowed Neuer to complete the 200th clean sheet in Bayern’s career. In this game, Pavard's defense zone encountered repeated impacts, and the handling of the players in the middle was not very good on several occasions, but we can see that "the wall" is still making steady contributions to saves, and has also won a zero-block record for himself. In addition, Lucas, who faced his old team on the other side, seemed to be struggling on both offense and defense (although it has always been like this).
At the last moment of the game, the main players such as Lewandowski, Pavard and Koeman had the opportunity to rest, and the performance of the substitutes was acceptable. With four goals and zero seals, Bayern fans got off to a good start in the Champions League group stage. 12 consecutive victories in the Champions League are what Bayern fans are happy to see.