Freiburg 1 – 2 Bayern: Another Scrappy, but Important Win | OneFootball

After a bad defeat on Wednesday, the Bavarians travelled to Freiburg and managed to force a win that gave them 3 important points.

This article written by Rainer Pompermayer

Kompany made a couple of changes after the Feyenoord match on Wednesday due to injuries or suspensions, with Dier starting in Upamecano’s place, Guerreiro at left-back and Kimmich at right back, with Pavlovic getting his starter place back alongside Goretzka, and Gnabry and Sané starting on the wings.

The first half was a similar display as we are used to in the last weeks, with the players moving and floating between themselves, controlling the match but without being able to provoke many scoring chances. Until Kane opened the score in an individual play, after a good turn to lose his marker and a nice shot in the corner. However just before the first half ended, Goretzka would need to leave the field due an injury, with Stanisic coming in, moving Kimmich back to his favorite position in the midfield.

The second half started similarly to the first, and Bayern was awarded another goal in the 54th minute, this time scored by Kim in a Kimmich corner (surprising right?). But, of course, Bayern would start to lose a bit of intensity and Freiburg would find a goal, this time by Ginter in another corner. The home team got thei spirits up and pushed Bayern until the last minute, but in the end the Bavarians scrapped another hard fight win.

THINGS WE NOTICED:

Comebacks, Injuries and Forced Rotation

It was interesting to see a somewhat different team today, with Pavlovic finally getting another chance to start, and Palhinha and Stanisic also coming back after long injuries from the bench. But, considering Davies, Upamecano and Goretzka injuries this week, we cannot stop thinking about when we would have a squad healthy and in good form, at least in its majority of players.

These injuries and “forced rotations” also highlight how much Kompany has been reluctant to make changes or do a proper squad rotation in some areas of the field. Besides the wings, we haven’t seen that many rotations or changes unless we have injuries or suspensions. And this can give Bayern a really hard time when the number of matches, and the level of the opponents, increases.

Another “So So” Performance

I believe that everyone already lost count how many matches Bayern needed to scrape together a win, being pushed and almost conceding in the final minutes. Be it by weird defensive blunders, chances being wasted, silly mistakes or a combination of all. We have seen the same script a lot of times this season.

This one was a bit different, on single player had an amazing or a terrible game, some of them were a bit better or a bit worse of course, but it generally was a protocol regular display by the whole team. This time without the offensive players losing that many chances, in part because Bayern almost did not create any, or the center backs making bizarre mistakes. Like I said, a regular and uninspired match, which I don’t know if is better or worse than the previous narrow wins in the season, with errors but at least with Bayern creating a lot of chances and pressing hard on the opponent.

Scrappy, but Important Three Points

Even though the game was uninspiring and the match once again needed to be hard fought until the end, with Leverkusen drawing against Leipzig playing at home, now Bayern stands six points ahead on the table. Of course we need to judge and criticize when needed, but these types of wins are usually the ones that define a champion at the end of the season and in a round that your main chaser draws at home, a win needs to be celebrated anyway.

LINE UPS AND GOALS:

Freiburg: Atubolu – Kübler, Rosenfelder (Ginter), Lienhart, Makengo (Gregoritsch) – Eggestein (manzambi), Höfler – Doan, Dinkçi (Grifo), Röhl, Höler (Adamu)

FC Bayern: Neuer – Kimmich, Dier, Kim, Guerreiro (Palhinha) – Pavlović, Goretzka (Stanisic) – Sané (Olise), Musiala (Muller), Gnabry (Coman) – Kane

Goals: 0:1 Kane (9’), 0:2 Kim (54’), 1:2 Ginter (68’) Yellow cards: Schuster, Kubler, Atubolu, Doan, Grifo, Kane, Muller.