Bayern Munich fall to first defeat under Vincent Kompany at Aston Villa

On Wednesday night, Bayern Munich traveled to Birmingham to face Aston Villa on matchday two of the league phase in the Champions League.

For this game, Vincent Kompany opted for a line-up of; Neuer - Laimer, Upamecano, Kim, Davies - Pavlovic, Kimmich - Gnabry, Olise, Coman - Kane.

Aston Villa adapted from their usual gung-ho, high octane approach that has seen them be so successful under Unai Emery, instead opting for a conservative low block, looking to hit Bayern on the counter.

Lack of incisiveness costs Bayern Munich against Aston Villa

Consequentially, the game looked a lot like the draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the early stages, with Bayern having a lot of possession in deep areas - without creating too much of note.

Mid-way through the first-half, Pau Torres had the ball in the net following a set-piece situation, but the goal was disallowed for offside and Bayern got away with some poor defending. Bayern went closest to scoring shortly before the break when a curling effort from Michael Olise that looked bound for the top corner was expertly saved by Emi Martinez.

The sides went into the interval goalless, and Vincent Kompany responded by introducing Jamal Musiala for Kingsley Coman. Bayern were still unable to open up their hosts, as Leroy Sané replaced Olise with around 25 minutes to go. Joao Palhinha then came on with fourteen minutes left on the clock.

Then, eleven minutes from time - disaster struck. A perfectly threaded through ball from Torres found Jhon Duran, who hit the ball as it bounced, flying past Manuel Neuer, who seemed unneccesarily far off his line. It was a nice goal, but one that could absolutely have been avoided from a Bayern point of view.

Kompany responsed by introducing Mathys Tel and Leon Gortezka. One minute into stoppage time yielded Bayern's best and first real chance of the game. Musiala fizzed in a low ball that took out the Villa defense, with Serge Gnabry ghosting into the box to get on the end of it. Sadly, his side footed finish could not get the better of Martinez, who stood strong to get in the way.

With the last action of the game, a short corner was played to Kimmich, who whipped in a cross for Kane, whose header was acrobatically saved by Martinez in the Villa net. That would be that, and Bayern would suffer their first defeat of the Vincent Kompany era.

Bayern will look to bounce back on Sunday, as they face the second placed team in the league for a second consecutive week, traveling to Frankfurt - 17:30 CEST kick off.