PLAYER RATINGS | Inter 2-2 Bayern Munich (4-3 on aggregate) | OneFootball

Bayern Munich faced a tough challenge to overturn their 2-1 deficit against Inter at the San Siro in the second leg of their Champions League clash.

Tired, unimaginative. Those two words best describe Bayern’s first half. Inter were happy to let the visitors control the ball and, with relative ease, were able to hold them off, except for a scrabble in the Inter box which Bayern were unable to convert. The way Inter are defending, not even Florian Wirtz could improve this Bayern attack. In defence, they looked rather shaky with Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez both causing them several issues, but never truly troubling Jonas Urbig. This all helped Inter as they are still a goal up. In the second half, Bayern needed a spark to turn the tie around and swing momentum in their favour.

Bayern found that spark right at the beginning of the second half when a ball is played into the box, leaving Harry Kane one-on-one with Federico DiMarco, the Englishman then finds minimal amounts of space to give Bayern the lead. However, the Bavarians’ hold on the game did not last long when a corner is played in by Inter and after a few missed headers, the ball lands at the feet of Lautaro Martinez, who makes it 1-1 on the night and gives Inter the lead again on aggregate.

Inter then hit back at Bayern again with another corner was met by the head of Benjamin Pavard to give Inter a comfortable lead. It was fitting that Pavard scored his first-ever Inter goal against Bayern. Then Bayern were scrambling to get themselves back into the tie, and an unlikely hero arose when Eric Dier scored his first ever goal for the Rekordmeister to make it level on the night and give Bayern the hope of mounting a comeback.

Bayern continued to push for an equaliser on aggregate, and it was the same old story as the past few weeks and the tie. The visitors struggled in front of the goal. Yann Sommer flapped at a ball and it landed to Kane, who blasted the ball over the bar. It didn’t stop there as a cross is played in and it is met by the head of Thomas Müller, but the ball loses all momentum and is caught by Sommer.

I have said it before, but this Bayern side is tired and they are limping to the finish line. They are fortunate that they are six points clear in the Bundesliga, and they are also fortunate that the side chasing them is also running on fumes.

Tonight’s performance also showed that maybe spending €150m on a certain individual does not solve all their problems, and other areas need addressing before that. Centre-back needs more reliable backup options, they need an actual right-back, they need a direct goal threat on the left-wing, and they also need another striker to play backup to Kane and can come on and be clinical, something that they are lacking at times.

But hey, in 365 days time we will see Wirtz, Musiala and Olise all hunched over on the pitch at the Etihad after they have been knocked out again. As with the current defence, they are not coming close to a Champions League title.

Inter:

Yann Sommer (6), Benjamin Pavard (6), Francesco Acerbi (6), Alessandro Bastoni (6), Matteo Darmian (6), Nicolo Barella (6), Hakan Calhanoglu (6), Henrik Mkhitaryan (6), Federico DiMarco (6), Lautaro Martinez (7), Marcus Thuram  (6)

Others: Carlos Augusto (5), Mehdi Taremi (-), Yann Aurel Bisseck (-), Davide Frattesi (-)

Bayern Munich:

Jonas Urbig (5), Konrad Laimer (5), Min-Jae Kim (5), Eric Dier (6), Josip Stanisic (5), Joshua Kimmich (5), Leon Goretzka (5), Leroy Sané (5), Michael Olise (6), Thomas Müller (5), Harry Kane (6)

Others: Raphaël Guerreiro (5), Serge Gnabry (6), Kingsley Coman (-), Aleksander Pavlovic

GGFN Man of the Match: Lautaro Martinez (7)

There is something about Inter and Argentine strikers. Over the two legs, he was the standout player in the whole tie. Tonight, he also gave Bayern’s central defenders the run around and was in the right place at the right time to score the equaliser for Inter on the night.

Martinez is probably one of the most underrated strikers in the world.

GGFN | Jack Meenan