On matchday 18 of the ongoing 2024/25 Bundesliga season Bayern Munich hosted mid-table side - VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena. In front of a boisterous home crowd, on the back of an impressive 5-0 win over Hoffenheim just three days earlier, Bayern proceeded to statistically dominate the opposition from start to finish en route to a highly entertaining 3-2 victory on Saturday.
However, profligacy in front of goal coupled with the odd defensive lapse resulted in the final score being a lot closer than it should have been. Let us now take a look at three players who were major contributors to the victory over Wolfsburg.
Leon Goretzka
To go from being told, before the start of the current season, that he wasn’t part of Vincent Kompany’s plans moving forward to earning back the trust of his coach and regaining his starting spot alongside Joshua Kimmich in the midfield, one can’t help but admire the display of character from Leon Goretzka.
On Saturday evening, the 29-year-old German international went even one better and repaid Kompany’s faith in him by putting in a man-of-the-match performance. Whilst some of his teammates fluffed their lines when a goal was there for the taking, Goretzka struck a brace for Die Roten. His two goals propelled Bayern to victory, but Goretzka stole the show with a splendid all-round performance.
From exactly 100 touches of the ball, his distribution was near perfect as he completed 97% of his passes (83/86). In the attack, Goretzka was never dispossessed and in defense, he made eight recoveries. With Aleksandar Pavlovic back to full health, Kompany now has what should be considered a welcome headache in terms of deciding who should partner Joshua Kimmich in the engine room.