In their first game under new head coach Vincent Kompany, Bayern Munich secured the three points after coming from behind to beat Wolfsburg.
The first half was odd, Wolfsburg started off as the better team but regressed as the half went on, while Bayern were in control for the majority of the half but never looked truly convincing, especially at the back where they were rather vulnerable but went unpunished.
Bayern did force several key saves from Wolfsburg goalkeeper Kamil Grabara on his debut for the club but the breakthrough came when Sacha Boey, Bayern’s best player of the half, cut back into the box and the ball was met by Jamal Musiala to give Bayern the lead. The combination of Boey and debutant Michael Olise continued to cause issues for Jakub Kaminski for the rest of the first half.
At the beginning of the second half, Wolfsburg caught Bayern by surprise when Boey brought down Tiago Tomas to give Wolfsburg a penalty which Lovro Majer converted. Not soon after Majer would then score again for Wolfsburg to make it 2-1. Bayern however continued to push and regained control of the game, Kaminski would score an own goal in the 65th minute to level the game for Die Rekordmeister. Then in the 82nd minute, Serge Gnarby scored the winner for Bayern.
The game highlighted some teething issues for Bayern’s new style of play, especially in defence. Throughout the game, the back line did not look comfortable on the ball and a better team than Wolfsburg would have punished them more often. While for Wolfsburg, after a terrible season last year, this performance against Bayern will give them hope that they can be fighting for Europe once again.
Bayern’s next game is at the Allianz Arena against Freiburg, who began their Bundesliga season with a 3-1 win against VfB Stuttgart.
Wolfsburg XI:
Kamil Grabara (7), Kilian Fischer (6), Sebastiaan Bornauw (5), Cedric Zeisiger (5), Ridle Baku (5), Maximilian Arnold (5), Matthias Svanberg (6), Jakub Kaminski (4), Lovro Majer (7), Patrick Wimmer (5), Tiago Tomas (5)
Others: Kevin Behrens (5), Yannick Gerhardt (5), Jonas Wind (-)
Bayern Munich XI:
Manuel Neuer (6), Sacha Boey (6), Dayot Upamecano (5), Kim Min-Jae (4), Alphonso Davies (5), Joshua Kimmich (6), Aleksander Pavlovic (5), Serge Gnabry (6), Jamal Musiala (7), Michael Olise (6), Harry Kane (5)
Others: Thomas Müller (6), Kingsley Coman (5), Eric Dier (-)
GGFN Man of the Match: Kamil Grabara (7)
In his debut for Wolfsburg, Grabara made several key saves in the first half to keep out Bayern. Without the Polish keeper’s contribution then Wolfsburg would have likely went in at half-time more than a goal down. The 25-year-old also tried his best to keep out the final two Bayern goals, but it was not enough.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
