Bayern Munich: Takeaways from 1-1 draw with Celtic at Allianz Arena | OneFootball

Courtesy of a 1-1 draw with reigning Scottish Champions – Celtic at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night, Bayern Munich booked their place in the round of 16 of the ongoing 2024/25 UEFA Champions League. After having secured a 2-1 victory in the first leg in Scotland, Bayern fans had hoped to see the team register an emphatic victory on home soil.

However, the plucky Scottish side had no intentions of following that script. Celtic took a 1-0 lead in the 63rd. minute of play to level the aggregate score at 2-2. With the scoreline still reading 1-0, deep into added time, the game seemed destined for extra time. Unfortunately for Celtic that was not to be the case. Following Kasper Schmeichel’s brilliant save from Leon Goretzka’s header in the 94th. minute, Alphonso Davies was on the spot to force the ball into the open net despite a defender’s desperate effort at a clearance. Amazingly Bayern managed to score with a last-ditch effort and break Celtic hearts in the process. Let's look at some of the major takeaways from Bayern’s narrow escape on Tuesday.

Defense showed worrying signs against Celtic

Following the heroic blood and guts defending from Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae against Bayer Leverkusen on the weekend, fans have every reason to be disappointed with the performance of the center-back pairing on Tuesday.

Poor passing out from the back and poor positional play from the back four presented Celtic with goal-scoring chances in the first half. Whilst the visitors deserve a lot of credit for rigorously pressing the home side, some errors from Bayern were unforced.

Celtic’s goal eventually came from the result of the repeated poor passing and positional play. However, even then, had Kim not pressed the panic button in attempting his slide tackle, Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn would not have been gifted the opportunity to score.  Simply put, the South Korean defender failed to correctly execute the basics after having gotten to the ball before the attacking player. Kim’s confidence is now a genuine source of concern. Bayern need their defenders to step up if they want to go deep in the Champions League.