Bayern Munich delivered a dominant first-half performance in Turin, bossing possession against the Italian champions, but buckled when their defence was finally tested
With an hour gone on the clock, Juventus looked battered, bruised and destined to exit the Champions League. Rarely has the Juventus Stadium been such an anxious cauldron of jeers, whistles and despondency as Bayern Munich put on an almost perfect away performance. Almost. By full-time the hosts were cheering an unlikely comeback, though neither side will have sent shivers down the spine of a Barcelona team with one foot already in the quarter-finals.
Tuesday’s match was billed as a clash of behemoths, the dominant champions of Italy against the equally ruthless champions of Germany; the two teams most capable of stopping Barca from retaining their European crown. But what began as a contest between a contender and a pretender shifted in the blink of an eye as both side’s flaws were brutally exposed.
Bayern arrived with the joint-best defence in Europe and having lost just once in the Bundesliga. Similarly, Juventus, fresh from a 15-match winning run in Serie A, had not conceded in 836 minutes of football in all competitions. Last season they made the final, but this season – with a new Argentine talisman producing magic and a horde of world-class talent backing him up – they were bidding to go one further.
Yet the opening exchanges felt like a lower league minnow trying to snatch an unexpected win as the red shirts of Bayern strangled their opponents. After 10 minutes, the visitors had racked up 81 per cent possession and 89 opposition-half touches (compared to five for the hosts) in a dominant, chest-beating start to the match. As the whistles in the crowd dimmed it was not because Juve were getting on the front foot, but because the fans had already run out of voice.
After half an hour, Juve’s wide-men – the wasteful Juan Cuadrado and the out-of-position Paul Pogba – were practically playing as auxiliary full-backs, while a strike duo that hinted at a sign of attacking intent pre-match had retreated to within a stone’s throw of their own penalty box.
Bayern’s dominance was such that their injury-hit, makeshift defence almost became an irrelevance. Centre-back for the night Joshua Kimmich, who had the confidence and audacity to chip the ball over Pogba on the edge of his own box at one point, was playing so high up the pitch he may as well have been in his usual midfield berth. The Bavarians were playing like the home side, camped in the Juve half to such an extent that they could have whipped out a guitar and sung Kumbaya.
When Thomas Muller finally struck, it had an air of inevitability. Twice he had been a better first touch away from opening the scoring, but when the ball dropped to him 12 yards out he made no mistakes as he caressed the ball into the bottom corner.
Only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been more prolific in the Champions League since the German striker opened his account in Europe’s premier club competition. It was just reward for a scarily good first half from Pep Guardiola’s side, who had made the J-Stadium their home for the night.
But Juventus improved in the second period – they could hardly have been much worse – and began to enjoy more possession in Bayern’s third of the pitch. As the high press Bayern had employed began to lose its intensity, a back-line that had been largely untested previously started to groan under the weight of rare pressure. Space and gaps appeared, but it was Bayern who exploited them.
On an uncharacteristic counter-attack of their own, the Bavarians were suddenly three-on-two. Arjen Robben was played a little too wide, but it mattered little. The Dutchman brought the ball onto his left foot, cut infield and then struck a devilishly whipped shot into the far corner. It is a move that is as much of a trademark as the Coca-Cola logo.
But just when Bayern seemed in total control, they were struck by a sucker-punch. Juve had been timid and cautious in the first half, but, led by the firebrand Mario Mandzukic – who seemed determined to start a scuffle with each of his former team-mates – the Italians finally found a way to compete. They pressed higher, using Guardiola’s own tactics against him, and began to get in the faces of a back-line that had been afforded too much time and comfort previously.
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Mandzukic, visibly desperate to prove a point to a manager who had cast him aside rather unceremoniously, was involved in both of Juve’s goals. First he pounced on an error from Kimmich and slid in Paulo Dybala, then he played in substitute Alvaro Morata who set up Stefano Sturaro for the equaliser. The momentum was entirely with the hosts, who might even have snatched a winner in the dying stages.
Juve would scarcely have deserved to take a lead to the Allianz Arena, but that they came so close once again underlines the shortcomings of Guardiola’s side. The concern for Bayern is the same as it ever was: they are too vulnerable to quick breaks, too open when they lose the ball, and too disorganised when things are not going their way.
It is no great surprise, of course, that a defence featuring so few natural defenders, and so little midfield cover, should look so open and exposed when out of possession. And for much of the match in Turin, it mattered little. But the goals they did concede will not have impressed Guardiola as they were born out of poor organisation and an inability to halt Juve’s battling second-half display. Mandzukic was peripheral in the extreme for 45 minutes, but his scrapping and closing down provided a catalyst that was born more out of nuisance-making than genius.
So Bayern take an advantage back to Germany, and can expect to dominate possession to an even greater extent on their own turf. But if either side have any hope of winning the Champions League, they will almost certainly need to thwart Barcelona’s explosive MSN attack. On this showing, and even with injured defensive stalwarts set to return, they stand little chance of doing so, especially not while Guardiola continues to believe his side can circumvent their problems without the ball by simply having more of it.
- Goal