Despite dominating the match, on Tuesday, Bayern Munich had to come back from a goal down against Sporting Club of Portugal to register a 3-1 victory. Some near misses, combined with some excellent goalkeeping from Rui Silva in the Sporting goal, kept Bayern at bay in the first half.
The game did a full 180-degree turn nine minutes after the restart when Joshua Kimmich scored a rare own-goal to put the visitors in front. However, Bayern trailed for only eleven minutes. Just after the hour mark, Serge Gnabry ghosted in at the far post to tap in a Michael Olise corner for the equalizer. Lennart Karl scored four minutes later to set a new record. In the 77th minute, Jonathan Tah rounded off an exceptional 12 minutes for the Bavarian giants when he steered in Bayern’s third from close range.
Let’s take a look at some key takeaways from what was an ultimately impressive victory for Bayern on Tuesday evening.
Sporting’s low-block defense was a problem until it wasn’t
Depending on the view taken, one could believe that Bayern struggled with the low-block defense that the visitors had deployed. However, considering the fact that Lennart Karl was denied a goal just five minutes into the match because of a marginal offside call against Serge Gnabry, and Harry Kane also struck a post in the first half, one might be just as correct in saying that Bayern just didn’t get the rub of the green in the first half.
After conceding early in the second half, Bayern duly responded and came away victorious in the end. Of major significance was the fact that the comeback was started and finished with the starting XI on the pitch. This would suggest that even if Sporting’s low block was a problem in the first half, Kompany and his men were able to solve it in the second, which in itself is another sign of progress in the Bayern ranks.