Without Müller, or what? Bayern Munich goes down at Manchester City

That’s it. Bayern Munich had England’s top team well under control for 25 minutes – but then an artful shot initiated the debacle at Manchester City. Because Erling Haaland also struck after the break, the German champions go into the second leg next Wednesday after the 3-0 defeat with almost no hope of semi-finals.

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel did without both Sadio Mané and Thomas Müller in his starting line-up. “We wanted runners and fast dribblers, agile players who are also fast over the distance,” explained Tuchel his decision for Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry. Defensively, his team actually had the city goal machine Haaland well under control, and the Norwegian didn’t initially have more than half a chance (22nd).

Champions League: Manchester City beats Bayern Munich 3-0

Then within a minute the glory and misery of Jamal Musiala showed up. A shot by the highly talented 20-year-old was just blocked by Ruben Dias, and when Manchester counterattacked he only hesitantly attacked Rodri – and the Spaniard used this little carelessness to shoot the ball from 22 meters into the top left corner.

Sané tries his luck with the shot – in vain

It took Munich a good ten minutes to get back into the game. Leroy Sané (45th + 2, 49th, 54th) then tried his shooting luck several times, could not follow Rodri, but justified his line-up. After the change of sides, things went back and forth, neither team was satisfied with the 1-0 win for the “Citizens”.

Upamecano-Patzer lets Bayern collapse

Tuchel sought the advice of Müller, the noble reservist became an assistant coach. But even the best coaching team can do little against individual dropouts: Dayot Upamecano had Jack Grealish take the ball 20 meters from his own goal, the ball came via Haaland to Bernardo Silva (70th), who headed in to make it 2-0. The Munich team never recovered from this setback: Haaland (77th) scored himself to make it 3-0, after which Müller was (or had to) be on the field for the last ten minutes. In the second leg, it doesn’t just need him, but a miracle.

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In the parallel game, Inter Milan won 2-0 at Benfica Lisbon through Nicolò Barella (51st) and a penalty by Romelu Lukaku (82nd).