Bayern Munich win ugly match against ruthless Eintracht Frankfurt

Bayern Munich managed to gain three points for the win and an eight point lead in the Bundesliga with their win over Frankfurt, but this match was far from their best.

After such a great performance against Paris Saint-Germain midweek, it would not be unpopular to say that Bayern Munich have long gone past their early season slump. Today’s 1-0 win against Frankfurt, however, would be a strong counterargument.

Played At Their Own Game

Managed by former Bayern midfielder Niko Kovač, Frankfurt – a midtable club – came out and stunned Bayern by attacking from the first minute. While many teams sit back and wait to catch Bayern’s high-line out on the counter, Frankfurt were running full force into the Bavarian backline.

With the hosts earning a free-kick and a dangerous yellow card for Arturo Vidal after five minutes, Bayern were certainly unfamiliar with a Bundesliga team attacking them so early. At one point, Frankfurt looked to set up camp in the opposing half, playing Bayern at their own game.

After the first ten minutes, which could only be described as a quintessential Bayern performance (albeit from the opposite team), Bayern started to wake up. Possession after ten minutes saw Bayern’s 32% be dwarfed by Frankfurt’s 68%. Several opportunities for Kingsley Coman to maintain his great form saw him charge towards the Frankfurt goal, only to have his shots or crosses just miss out from being the difference maker. 

Ever Reliable

Arturo Vidal’s early yellow card allowed Frankfurt to be more ruthless with their play and wind the Bayern players up. A tactic that seemed to work, as Vidal wasn’t able to have the same sort of tenacious impact he normally does. That didn’t stop him from making it four goals in four Bundesliga games, though. The assist came in the form of a pinpoint cross from (of course) Joshua Kimmich. Using his left foot, he lofted the ball high over the players scrambling in the penalty area for Vidal head home for the only goal of the game.

With many rumors of Vidal leaving Bayern at the end of this season, the damage he can inflict to an opponent is still huge. That’s especially true in games like this, against opponents who are willing to get in Bayern’s face.

Winning Ugly

Ultimately, today’s game was nothing special. A second half that featured very little action — or at least nothing of any note. Eintracht Frankfurt certainly stunned Bayern and took them by surprise. Heynckes’ decisions to not start Corentin Tolisso after his great performance against Paris and rest Lewandowski for the first 85 minutes were maybe not the right ones.

Regardless, three points is three points and this result keeps Bayern in first place now with an eight point lead — if Schalke lose to Borussia Monchengladbach — as well as crowns Bayern Herbstmeister for the seventh year in a row. The team will know that they can do better than this performance; it did not show them at their very best.

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This match did show, though, that Niklas Süle has potential to be a huge player for Bayern — both metaphorically and also physically — in the coming years. He has improved with just about every game played, and playing with experienced defenders such as Boateng and Hummels will only do positives for his development. Additionally, Tom Starke pulled off several key saves. Him and Heynckes both show that no matter how many times you retire, you never truly lose your touch.