The match had just entered the 80th minute when Floribert Ngalula quickly raced down the left touchline to the corner flag. The FC Bayern assistant coach normally sits on the bench and as usual he was dressed in a thick coat on this December evening at the Allianz Arena, but in this moment it looked like the 38-year-old had no time to lose. As he ran back to the bench moments later, he briefly nodded to his boss Vincent Kompany to say: “Yes, Phonzy is ready.” And then, two weeks before Christmas, it got emotional.
A win for the team and a personal comeback
Alphonso Davies had been absent for Bayern for 261 days after tearing his cruciate ligament in March of this year. Now, at the end of the Champions League match at home to Sporting Lisbon, the left-back not only celebrated his personal comeback but also an important 3-1 win with the team. With 15 points, the Bavarians now have their place in the round of 16 all but secured with two matchdays left of the league phase.
“We’ve not sealed automatic qualification for the round of 16 yet but it’s looking good,” said CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen. And board member for sport Max Eberl revealed: “We want to avoid the play-offs, now we’re a step closer and need one more win. That will also give us two fewer midweek fixtures.”
Two watertight lines of defence
However, Bayern were made to work hard for their next three points. Sporting sat back very deep in their own half, seemingly erecting two watertight walls in front of their goal, and did everything they could to thwart Bayern's patient waves of attack.
“We had to be patient in the first half against a very low Sporting block,” analysed Lennart Karl. “That meant a lot of circulating the ball, passing back and forth, staying patient and eventually finding the gaps.” The 17-year-old started for the third time in a row in his fourth Champions League appearance – something no German player had ever achieved before. Kompany again shuffled his pack, with only Dayot Upamecano, Konrad Laimer, Joshua Kimmich and Michael Olise remaining from the team that started at Stuttgart.
‘It was a really tough match’
But even the fresh legs struggled for a long time to find gaps in the huge Portuguese wall. And when they did, like with Karl’s goal after five minutes, it was disallowed for a marginal offside. “For the first 65 minutes, up until the equaliser, we were effective. We had our plan and we executed it perfectly,” commented Sporting captain Morten Hjulmand. “It was a really tough match. Sporting played good football and didn’t make it easy for us,” acknowledged Serge Gnabry.
It didn’t bother the visitors that they had under 20 percent possession after a quarter of an hour – Bayern combined and switched, crossed and passed, increasingly tightened the noose. And Sporting? Sporting scuppered. And Sporting also got lucky when Harry Kane’s bouncing shot crashed against the post (38th minute) or when Karl's fine dribbling left Sporting defender Matheus Reis spinning and goalkeeper Rui Silva only just managed to get his hand to the shot (44’).
Danger on the break
That said, sporadic counters from the visitors did lead to dangerous, low crosses. On one occasion, Jonathan Tah unintentionally diverted the ball towards his own goal, but Manuel Neuer managed to defuse (28’). The goalkeeper was powerless to stop a similar attempted clearance from Kimmich ending up in the net in the 55th minute. “We had some very good spells in possession – the goal especially was brilliantly worked,” found Hjulmand. That gave Sporting a rather curious lead – since the Lions didn’t register a single shot on target in the 90 minutes.
Sporting wall crumbles
It was now a game of patience that required even more composure. With the lead in hand, Sporting retreated a few centimetres further back, laying another row of bricks in their defensive wall. The chances came thick and fast, with Bayern now finding themselves in front of goal almost every minute, impressively spurred on by the tireless Südkurve. The home crowd finally got to celebrate in the 65th minute following a well-rehearsed corner routine from Kimmich: Aleksandar Pavlović, Josip Stanišić and Kane blocked to get Gnabry free, and he volleyed in the equaliser.
“Then you concede a goal here in this stadium and you know the fans are going to push, the team are going to push. And we didn’t really manage to escape from the chaos they wanted to create, and then we conceded again,” continued Sporting midfielder Hjulmand. That goal was like a sledgehammer blow to Sporting's defences, which cracked even further when, just four minutes later, Laimer spotted Karl, who took the ball beautifully with his left foot from a tight angle and finished with his right under the bar to put his side 2-1 in front. “We drew a lot of courage from the poorer minutes in the second half,” said a pleased Kompany. “We became aggressive and more dangerous. These boys never give up, and didn’t today either.”
Karl is now the youngest player in Champions League history (since 1992/93) to score in three consecutive games, following his efforts against Club Brugge and Arsenal. “He has that special quality, he has a good first touch,” praised Eberl. “That’s what sets him apart. He’s playing a very important role for us and producing good performances. It’s a joy to watch him.” The coach saw it similarly: “To be honest, he’s had better games for us but he pops up in key moments four or five times – and then he strikes. You don’t always have to be the best player on the pitch to be important.”
A beautiful sprint and a special hope
This time Karl had completely torn down the Sporting wall. When Tah then made it 3-1 from Gnabry’s lay-off after a long ball from Kimmich, the contest was settled with around a quarter of an hour left. What followed was perhaps the most beautiful sprint of the day by Ngalula – and a special hope from Kompany: “Phonzy, Hiroki Ito and Jamal Musiala are sensing this year how difficult it is to be a top player. Last year we were spurred on by Harry Kane and Eric Dier winning their first titles. This season the fire can be important players coming back, giving us energy and power.” More of the same on Sunday, when Mainz 05 visit the Arena.
The post-match reaction:
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