PLAYER RATINGS | Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-1 Bayern Munich | OneFootball

After Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-2 win Borussia Dortmund last night, Bayern Munich replied with a 1-0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach

The main takeaway from the opening 45 was, how can a neutral find this interesting? Admittedly, I do have a foot in this race, but I also had more fun and interest in a class at school that I hated so much that it felt twice as long (French). Bayern had 76% possession in the first half but the absence of Jamal Musiala was clear as no clear-cut chances were created. It was the same automatic movements of trying to cut the ball back across the face of the goal to give Harry Kane his customary tap-in. While Gladbach can count their blessings that they have Yann Sommer in disguise in goal on the attacking front they haven’t created anything.

In the second half, Gladbach came out fighting and immediately looked like a better side compared to their first-half performance. They then had their first chance of the half when Tim Kleindienst just headed over the bar. Gladbach continued to build momentum but that was ruined when Bayern were awarded a (soft) penalty after Michael Olise went down after contact from Lukas Ullrich and Luca Netz, naturally, Harry Kane stepped forward to score. Bayern then regained a hold of the game but were unable to add a second as each time they were stopped by Mortiz Nicolas. Kleindienst had another chance to equalise this time but the ball again went over the bar. Gladbach’s pushing for an equaliser left them severely open at the back and Bayern were again unable to double their lead as Nicolas would again stop them.

The win for Bayern opens their lead again to four points following Leverkusen’s win last night. What this game did show was that without Musiala, they are very blunt in attack and struggle to create anything. Add to this Kane, who apart from his penalty was absent for most of the game, then everyone gets in each other’s way when they get into the opponent’s final third.

Gladbach should be happy with their second-half performance, away from the penalty, but their one issue was the lack of pace in their attack. There were several times in this game where Gladbach was on the counter but were unable to take advantage of this as Bayern were able to track back in time to nullify the attack.

I am a better man, so I will not mention the performance of the referee. (Jude Bellingham was right)

Bayern’s next game is in midweek against Hoffenheim on Wednesday (Englische Woche alarm) while Gladbach faces Wolfsburg on Tuesday.

Borussia Mönchengladbach:

Mortiz Nicolas (9), Joe Scally (5), Ko Itakura (5), Nico Elvedi (5), Lukas Ullrich (5), Julian Weigl (6), Philipp Sander (5), Rocco Reitz (6), Alassane Plea (5), Robin Hack (5), Tim Kleindienst (6)

Others: Luca Netz (5), Kevin Stöger (6), Stefan Lainer (-), Tomas Cvancara (-), Shio Fukuda (-)

Bayern Munich:

Manuel Neuer (4), Konrad Laimer (5), Eric Dier (5), Min-Jae Kim (5), Alphonso Davies (6), Leon Goretzka (5), Joshua Kimmich (6), Michael Olise (6) Thomas Müller (5), Leroy Sané (5), Harry Kane (5)

Others: Kingsley Coman (6), Serge Gnabry (5)

GGFN Man of the Match: Mortiz Nicolas (9)

Yann Sommer 2.0. Nicolas was integral to Gladbach staying in the game as he made nine saves to keep out Bayern. Several times in this game he was outnumbered in a Bayern counter, but each time he was able to thwart the counter-attack with relative ease. Gladbach has probably stumbled upon their next great keeper by accident and it is probably only a matter of time before he can be mentioned as potentially earning a call-up to the national team with former Gladbach keeper Marc-André ter Stegen still out.

GGFN | Jack Meenan