Bayern Munich 1 Leverkusen 1: Alonso’s side show resilience, Pavlovic stunner and rivalry simmers

By
James BAOUCH
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Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen shared the points at Allianz Arena, drawing 1-1 in the Bundesliga after two fabulous long-range goals. Leverkusen took the lead through Robert Andrich, only for Aleksandar Pavlovic to brilliantly equalise.

So, no winner in Munich and no goals for Harry Kane or Michael Olise, but the biggest game of the season so far was full of compelling details.

Seb Stafford-Bloor analyses the big talking points.

The other face of Leverkusen

What a contrast to the performance Bayer Leverkusen gave in Munich last year when they twice came from behind to draw 2-2, establishing themselves as a credible threat to Bayern.

That night, they played with purpose and speed, looked incredibly dangerous on the break, and missed all sorts of chances. This weekend, Xabi Alonso seemed determined to show his team’s other side. Leverkusen were deeply conservative at Allianz Arena, defending resolutely without ever really looking like they might win the game. Even when they took the lead, through Andrich’s crisp drive from the edge of the box, it was from a corner that Bayern had needlessly conceded.

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Leverkusen’s total expected goals — a metric that measures the quality of their goalscoring chances — across the 90 minutes? 0.14. That tells the story — and it was a surprise.

However, in the weeks since the loss to RB Leipzig, the conversation about the defending champions has turned to the number of goals they have been conceding. Before this matchday, only four teams in the Bundesliga had worse defensive records.

In light of that, Alonso’s team were remarkably tough. The one goal they conceded was a phenomenal long-range strike from distance. The closest they came to conceding a second required a brilliant bit of football between Kane and Serge Gnabry (which ended with Gnabry hitting the post and then the bar).

So, this wasn’t necessarily an inferior Leverkusen, even if they were very different.

Pavlovic: A stunning goal and courageous display

Without Pavlovic’s goal, all of Bayern’s football — they had 69 per cent of the ball — might have led to nothing.

Pavlovic was born in Munich and raised in Bayern’s academy. On matchdays in central Munich, his name can already be seen on dozens of replica shirts on the trains and in the bars. He is a local boy and he is becoming a local hero. Not necessarily for his goals, but because of what he brings to Bayern’s possession.

He seems to really enjoy playing under bright lights. One of his best performances last season came in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, when — with fewer than 20 senior appearances to his name — he nervelessly steered Bayern around the Bernabeu.

He is an expressive player, quick to pick his passing targets and artful in how he distributes the ball. He is wily in the way he makes himself available to receive passes, too, and drifts away from the players tasked with subduing him.

But he also has a short memory. He conceded the corner from which Leverkusen scored and, given the stakes, a lesser player might have shrunk. No, he was the one cajoling his team-mates as they trooped back for the restart following Andrich’s goal, and — as soon as the game kicked off again — he was immediately back in his rhythm, as if he had no responsibility for what had just happened.

Leverkusen brought a tough mid-block to Munich, and were determined to make Bayern play slowly and sideways. In response, Pavlovic was willing to take risks with his passes in pursuit of quick, attacking possession. That takes courage against Alonso’s side, who have so much speed and class on the counter, and who have punished so many No 6s for their inaccuracies in the past.

So, he was not flawless, but neither did he ever stop playing as his side needed him to.

Simmering rivalry

There is a bit of heat in this rivalry. Fernando Carro, the Leverkusen chief executive, and Max Eberl, Bayern’s board member for sport, do not get on, and that all bubbled through the summer, when Jonathan Tah — excellent on Saturday — looked likely to head for Munich.

It never happened. Bayern could never quite come up with the money. Asked about the negotiations during a fans’ forum, Carro was loose-tongued, saying he “thought nothing” of Eberl, “absolutely nothing”. It earned him a public dressing down from Jan-Christian Dreesen, Bayern’s CEO.

This is a feud that goes back a few years to Eberl’s time as Borussia Monchengladbach’s sports director and Florian Wirtz’s controversial move from Cologne to Leverkusen. Gladbach, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Cologne and Leverkusen, who are all from the same west-German region, had a gentlemen’s agreement not to poach each other’s youth players.


Wirtz is at the heart of a growing rivalry (Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In 2020, many believe Leverkusen broke that agreement. Wirtz had been at Cologne from childhood, spending 10 years with the club before leaving in 2020. Leverkusen believed that Wirtz was technically a senior player, with his youth contract having expired. Others, Eberl among them, disagreed and were openly critical.

That is particularly interesting given that Bayern Munich’s transfer priority for next summer is expected to be Wirtz.

Olise shines again

There were an assortment of dynamics all over the pitch that worked for both teams in different ways. There was no definitive outcome on Saturday, but the game was still compelling.

For Leverkusen, Granit Xhaka and Andrich blocked up the space in front of their defence with great discipline and it was no surprise that much of Bayern’s football was played around the visiting penalty box, rather than into it.

Olise was, once again, a pronounced threat. He has made a tremendous start to life in the Bundesliga (three goals and two assists from five games).

Michael Olise


Olise, right, is adapting quickly to German football (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Perhaps his strongest virtue is his variation, though, and the variety of ways in which he challenge a defence. He can carry or create, drop deep and wide to the touchline or drive to the goalline. He has combined well with Kane, who had scored 10 goals in six games but failed to have a shot against Leverkusen.

Olise’s confidence is already giving him a talismanic glint. The context for that, of course, is that by moving from Crystal Palace to Bayern, he has exchanged a counter-attacking system for something much more proactive, and has adapted to an entirely new playing style in a short space of time. His adjustment has been practically immediate.

Behind Olise, Joshua Kimmich might have put together his best game in months. He spent almost all of last season at right-back but Vincent Kompany has restored Kimmich to midfield and with good effect. One aspect of Bayern’s build-up under Kompany is to push Kimmich out to the right of his defence — like an inversion of the way Germany used Toni Kroos last summer — and to then use his quick, diagonal crossfield to find Gnabry on the opposite touchline. It’s a weapon and, alongside a combative, technically impressive performance, it was in Kimmich’s repertoire again on Saturday.

(Top photo: Pavlovic celebrates his equaliser; Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)



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