On Matchday 23 of the Bundesliga season, league leaders FC Bayern Munich hosted Bundesliga strugglers Greuther Furth. After two very poor performances in a row for Julian Nagelsmann and company, Bayern had a lot to prove on Sunday. With an uneventful first half and conceding the opening goal in the 42nd minute, the Bavarians set up an impressive comeback. Here are my top player performances from Bayern Munich’s 4-1 win over Furth.
Lucas Hernandez
Even with being subbed off after just 53 minutes, Lucas Hernandez was the best defender on the field. A performance like this is exactly what he needed to come back to after being heavily criticized in the 4-2 defeat against Bochum.
The entirety of the first half was ran by Hernandez with his feats of great strength and pace. This game would’ve had a much different finish if Hernandez was not on the field to deliver some of his tackles. In both the 20th and 40th minutes, Hernandez delivered perfectly timed tackles, which denied Furth a couple of goal-scoring opportunities. A masterful defensive performance from Lucas Hernandez.
Thomas Muller
After a slow start, Thomas Muller controlled the second half, giving his team the boost of energy they needed to come back after conceding right before halftime. For the entirety of the second 45 minutes, Muller was commanding his team very the midfield and driving them to get the ball forward.
In the 61st minute, Muller sent in a bullet of a cross in front of the goal which was slotted home by a Furth defender for the goal. Then, using his head in the 81st and 85th minute, Muller set up two excellent chances. The first was a great cross which was unlucky to not be tapped into the back of the net. The second was a great headed effort at goal but drew an even greater save. Overall, very clean and controlled performance from Thomas Muller.
Robert Lewandowski
This game was a tale of two halves for Robert Lewandowski, for what he lacked in the first half, he made up for in the second. After only getting what seemed like two touches the whole first 45 minutes, Lewandowski turned around and grabbed two goals in the second.
Just seconds after the game resumed play from halftime, Lewandowski had a tap-in goal from a deflection off of Choupo-Moting to open the scoring for his side. It could be argued that the second goal is the bog-standard for a perfect-headed goal. After Niklas Sule sent the ball across the face of the goal, Lewandowski used his head to place his shot perfectly into the top left corner. In grabbing yet another brace this season, Robert Lewandowski is rightfully my Man of the Match.
Bayern Munich will be looking to keep that run of bad form in the past as they head to Deutsche Bank Park on Feb. 26 to take on Eintracht Frankfurt.