On Matchday 24 of the Bundesliga season, Bayern Munich was trying to seek their revenge against Eintracht Frankfurt after suffering defeat against them at Allianz Arena earlier this season. From what has been a shaky start to the calendar year for the Bavarians, missing players like Thomas Muller, Leon Goretzka, Alphonso Davies, and captain Manuel Neuer are not helping their cause. However, there were a couple of new shining stars from the game against Frankfurt on Saturday. Here are top performers from Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Robert Lewandowski
An unlucky game for Europe’s leading goal scorer Robert Lewandowski to not find the back of the net. However, the Polish international still delivered an incredible performance. With Thomas Muller out of the line-up today, Lewandowski found himself sitting much farther back, which allowed him to play a number of inch-perfect through balls forward to the likes of Kingsley Coman and Jamal Musiala.
When the Polish forward found himself in the final third position, it almost always led to a shot on target. Unfortunately for Lewandowski, Frankfurt keeper, Kevin Trapp had one of his best games of the season. This was about as good as a performance Lewandowski could have without scoring a goal.
Benjamin Pavard
If you were told that the man to fill an absent Thomas Muller’s role was Benjamin Pavard, you’d never believe it; however, this game has shown Pavard’s true versatility. The French right-back did it all today: steered the opposition away from goal, made great attacking runs, delivered cross after cross into the box, and even had a couple of shots on target.
In the 15th and 81st minutes, Pavard had the two best crosses of the game, slotting the ball right across the face of the goal to find Gnabry both times, but unfortunately, the German forward was unable to find the back of the net. To close out this class performance, in the 90th minute, Pavard brilliantly slid in to cut out a cross that very well could have led to the equaliser for Frankfurt. A complete performance from Pavard.
Joshua Kimmich
When having four starters sidelined due to injury/illness, other players had to stand up, and Joshua Kimmich did just that. Kimmich’s overall performance in this game was his best of the season. His work defensively was on-point- evident in the diving tackle he had in the 35th minute to cut out an open shot.
Not only was he a star defensively, but Kimmich also did brilliantly while contributing to the attack. He managed to play a pin-point pass to Leroy Sane for the game’s solitary goal in the 71st minute. From running back and forth to intercept on defense, to turning it around and contributing in the final, Kimmich was rightfully Man of the Match against Frankfurt.
The Super-Sub- Leroy Sane
An honorable mention rightfully goes to the game-changer himself, Leroy Sane. Even though he played last quarter after coming on in the 67th minute, Sane was the one to completely change the game around by scoring the crucial goal.
After quite a slow match for the reigning German champions, Bayern Munich will be looking to break back into their hefty goal-scoring form in their next game against Bayer Leverkusen on March 5.