Valuable minutes for fringe player and keeping everyone healthy
This victory in St. Pauli achieves the ultimate goal for Vincent Kompany: keeping the starters healthy ahead of the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. Apart from Lennart Karl, who will surely miss the game on Wednesday, Hiroki Ito is the only other concern as he hobbled off the pitch today with an injury.
This match is also a perfect opportunity for the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Jamal Musiala, and Leon Goretzka to find match fit, especially Musiala, who scored and assisted Jackson today. Kompany would need to have Musiala's offensive spark off the bench against not only Real Madrid but in other competitions if Bayern advances further.
Jackson and Musiala both looked very comfortable on the ball today and made good progress in finding their best form. This is brilliant news for Bayern ahead of a difficult run of games.