Bayern Munich scrape a lucky point against tough Nurnberg
Bayern Munich were greatly disappointing against Bundesliga minnows FC Nurnberg, barely scraping a point thanks to a late Serge Gnabry goal.
Bayern Munich had a massive chance to take a four-point lead over Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga table today. Travelling to 17th-placed Nurnberg should not have been a big issue for the Bavarians. However, the visitors made life difficult on themselves and barely escaped the match with a point.
Niko Kovac fielded a pretty predictable starting lineup, with just one exception. In-form winger Serge Gnabry was dropped and replaced by dynamic midfielder Leon Goretzka. The latter slotted in as a pseudo-number 10, shifting Thomas Muller out to the right flank.
After an uneventful first half between the two foes, Gnabry replaced Thomas Muller for the second 45 minutes. Though the Raumdeuter wasn’t spectacular in his time on the pitch, there’s little question Kovac would have been better off pulling Goretzka from the fray and shifting Muller to his preferred spot just behind Robert Lewandowski.
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Less than three minutes into the first half the hosts took the lead through a Matheus Pereira goal. The ball rebounded to the Brazilian after some great work from Nurnberg down the left flank resulted in a save from Sven Ulreich. The 22-year-old controlled the ball, settled his feet and curled in a fine left-footed effort. 1-0.
Ten minutes later James Rodriguez took the pitch in place of defensive midfielder Javi Martinez. The Colombian lasted just 15 minutes before he had to replaced by Alphonso Davies with an apparent injury.
Bayern Munich drew level in the 75th minute, when Serge Gnabry got on the end of a Kingsley Coman cross. The ball deflected off Nurnberg’s Robert Bauer and onto Serge Gnabry, somehow looping over the keeper and finding its way into the back of the net.
That was the final goal of the match but not because of a lack of effort. Both sides had spectacular chances to make the game their own, but both failed to make those opportunities count.
Again, Nurnberg’s chance came first in the 91st minute. An errant elbow from young Davies onto the face of Georg Margreitter resulted in a penalty for the hosts, which Tim Leibold fired off the post and narrowly avoided crossing the line.
Kingsley Coman had Bayern’s last great chance of the night just 3 minutes later. The Frenchman outpaced every player on the pitch into an excellent one-on-one (well, two-on-one if we’re being honest) situation against Christian Mathenia. Instead of rounding the Nurnberg keeper or sliding a pass to Serge Gnabry — who had pushed himself incredibly hard to catch up with his teammate– Coman elected to shoot, firing his shot directly at Mathenia. He could have made himself the hero of the match but instead became the villain.
Next. Bayern Munich want Benfica winger Jota, not Nicolas Pepe. dark
That shot marked the last significant moment of the match. All things considered, a 1-1 draw was a fair result. Though Coman’s miss will stand out as the most damning moment of the game, his was just the most obvious in a match full of disappointing moments from the reigning German champions.