One thing appeared to interrupt right here, and it was not simply Xabi Alonso’s proud unbeaten document over Bayern Munich. For Vincent Kompany are cruising to the Bundesliga title and now they’re cruising to the Champions League quarter-finals too. They might nicely signal Leverkusen’s finest participant Florian Wirtz in the summertime, however right here they performed him off the park. It appears like recreation over, and in additional senses than one.
This week the Bayern director of sport Max Eberl made an attention grabbing comparability. He in contrast Alonso and Vincent Kompany to Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, the teaching duopoly that formed trendy soccer for nearly a decade. Bit quickly for all that, most individuals reckoned, nevertheless it feels just a bit much less fanciful now. The bloke who obtained Burnley relegated to the Championship may be the following huge factor in European teaching.
They have been good worth for this too, thwarting and throttling Leverkusen nicely earlier than Matej Kovar dropped a easy cross to let Jamal Musiala in for a easy second and the wretched Nordi Mukiele was dismissed for a second yellow card shortly after.
Harry Kane was again to close his finest, heading within the first aim and smashing within the final. Leverkusen ended the sport with simply three pictures, and even a second-half harm to Manuel Neuer did not arrest the procession, the Allianz roaring their facet dwelling in a present of magnificent imperial disrespect. That is Germany’s nice rivalry now, its superclasico, the fourth of 5 instalments this season of an epic duel that appears to carry out the maverick in each. How curious, for instance, that Bayern selected this of all weeks to step up their curiosity in Wirtz. And but if Bayern have been attempting to get into their opponents’ heads then it barely registered towards the extent to which Xabi Alonso’s facet have managed to get into theirs over the previous couple of seasons.
Bayern are Alonso’s favorite canvas, his most popular muse, the Laura Dern to his David Lynch. Once more he went into this recreation with no recognised striker: a fairly normal 4-4-2 out of possession, however with Nordi Mukiele pushed up excessive on the suitable after they obtained the ball excessive on the suitable. Jeremie Frimpong drifted in from the suitable wing, making a rotating three-way menace with Wirtz and Amine Adli.
The difficulty was that Adli has been restricted to simply 5 begins this season by harm and regarded unsuited to a recreation of this depth. And someway Leverkusen’s system of organised chaos – plenty of lengthy balls from the keeper, attempting to jackal the scraps in midfield – appeared to blunt the specter of Wirtz as nicely, who was aggressively tailed by Joshua Kimmich in every single place he went and struggled for rhythm.
In the meantime, with Kane dropping deep into his customary zone of curiosity, Bayern have been additionally nicely staffed within the centre, and in a recreation of tight squeezes and fast switches they’d loads of velocity on the counter to take benefit.
It was from one such damaged state of affairs that the opening aim arrived: Kane successful the ball within the centre, spraying it out to Michael Olise and trotting in blind facet of Mukiele to fulfill the cross. The header from 11 yards was sensible, totally emphatic: assume Stephen Hendry pocketing a difficult blue and smashing the cue ball into the bunch.
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There may be after all a hazard in explaining away every part by techniques. You’ll be able to lose with an ideal tactical plan and win with a foul one. However as Bayern slowly turned the screw on Leverkusen right here, you can see how far Kompany has already developed as a coach, even within the 9 months he has been in Germany.
There was a transparent Guardiola affect in the best way the full-backs tapered inwards to snuff out the counter, in the best way Kompany opted for the pure straight-line velocity of Kingsley Coman over Leroy Sané or Serge Gnabry. And on the opposite wing, he has in Olise a participant at the moment reaching on the limits of his skills and greedy solely contemporary air.
Kovar’s howler was the purpose at which Leverkusen just about started to self-destruct. Mukiele gave Michael Oliver no alternative however to award him a second yellow for a petty pointless problem by the touchline; Edmond Tapsoba got here on and after shanking a clearance instantly grappled Kane to the bottom to present away a penalty. On the touchline, Alonso stared at his pristine white trainers. When it’s not your evening, it’s actually not your evening.
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