On Saturday night, high-flying Bayern Munich hosted Bayer Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena. The in-form team in Europe cruised to a 3-0 victory courtesy of a goal apiece from Serge Gnabry, Nicolas Jackson, and an own-goal from Leverkusen defender Loic Bade. It was a comfortable victory as all goals were scored in the first half.
The second half paled in comparison to the first, but with a trip to Paris scheduled for Tuesday to take on the reigning Champions of Europe-Paris Saint-Germain, it was more about managing the game against Leverkusen once they took a 3-0 lead.
With the win on Saturday, Bayern maintained their 100% start to the season and consolidated a five-point lead atop the Bundesliga standings after nine games. From a game in which all of the Bayern players impressed to varying degrees, let’s take a look at which ones stood out in Saturday’s victory over Leverkusen.
Tom Bischof
Just over a month ago, on matchday five of the season, Tom Bischof got his maiden Bundesliga start in place of an under-the-weather Joshua Kimmich. Playing as the number six back then, Bischof seized the opportunity and went on to produce an excellent performance against Werder Bremen in a comfortable 4-0 victory for the Bavarian giants. Cut to Saturday’s game against Leverkusen, the 20-year-old midfielder repeated the trick, but this time around, as part of a heavily rotated squad, he did it from the left back position.
Bischof provided the assist to Serge Gnabry for the first goal with a perfectly weighted and curled long ball all along the ground. The pass itself was a highlight of the game, and its accuracy was reminiscent of Harry Kane.
Similar to another Bayern Munich midfielder (Konrad Laimer) cum a full-back, Bischof looked comfortable defensively and didn’t miss an opportunity to supplement the attack. In the attack, apart from the assist, Bischof fired off three shots. He had 102 touches and found a teammate with 90% of his passes (72/80).
From a defensive point of view, Bischof also impressed in winning all three of his tackles and four of his five ground duels.