FC Bayern played exactly like the fans would have wanted. They were dominating possession, shooting in the opposition net as much as possible, tearing the opposing defenders with crisp through balls (courtesy to Coutinho), classic FC Bayern.
Nico Kovac may have finally understood that 4-2-3-1 is the best suited system for FC Bayern, and he dropped his favorite 4-3-3 for the 4-2-3-1. Niklas Sule and Jerome Boateng started as the central defender partners as Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard started as full-backs in left and right flank respectively. Joshua Kimmich and Corentin Tolisso started as the dual-pivot midfielders. Coutinho started as a classic number 10. Ivan Perisic started in the left flank and Serge Gnabry started in the right flank. Robert Lewandowski started as the sole number 9.
The match started perfectly for bayern as Lewy found the back of the net for Bayern in the 3rd minute of the game from a nice Joshua Kimmich cross, which is a very regular occurance these days. Koln were very much in the game until the halftime, as bayern let the pressure come onto them. Midfield was non-existent for quite sometime. Let the stats not fool you, Kimmich had a pretty rough day in office. I personally think that Kimmich better fits in the right back position. At the starting of the seconf half Lewy again found the back of the net, again a Kimmich-cross, this time from the corner. Then in the 59th minute Coutinho was brought down in the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty for Bayern. Lewy was selfless enough to let Coutinho take the penalty to score his first goal in a Bayern jersey. But the red card was not necessary and it was too harsh. One man down Koln found it pretty difficult to contain the bavarian attack. Perisic found the back of the net with a sublime finish from just outside the 6 yard box. Koln was lucky not to concede more.
Player ratings
Manuel Neuer : C+
Jerome Boateng : C+
Niklas Sule : B
Benjamin Pavard : B-
Lucas Hernandez : B-
Joshua Kimmich : B
Corentin Tolisso : B+
Philippe Coutinho : A
Ivan Perisic : A-
Serge Gnabry : C-
Robert Lewandowski : A
Substitutions:
Javi Martinez : C-
Thomas Muller : C
Michael Cuisance : C-
MotM : Robert Lewandowski
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