Bayern claw 1-1 draw from Sommer's historic performance
A bit of Bundesliga history over at the Allianz Arena on Saturday night saw Borussia Mönchengladbach keeper Yann Sommer save a league record 19 shots on target.
Trailing 0-1 until the 83rd minute, defending champions FC Bayern München were able to dig out a 1-1 draw from the "Sommer Show".
Trailing 0-1 until the 83rd minute, defending champions FC Bayern München were able to dig out a 1-1 draw from the "Sommer Show".
| Yann Sommer. | Photo: Borussia Mönchengladbach |
FCB trainer Julian Nagelmann kept his 4-4-2 from the 7-0 demolition of Bochum in place, opting only to re-insert center-halve Dayot Upamecano back into the XI for Matthijs de Ligt. Daniel Farke similarly saw no need to tinker with his squad. Gladbach's lone personnel change saw Luca Netz come on for the late-scratch Ramy Bensebaini at left-back.
The record champions stormed out of the gate and forced Sommer into his first monster save before one minute had elapsed. Sadio Mané earned a corner 15 seconds in and Sommer had to deny Upamecano at full stretch off the ensuing set-piece. The Bavarians proceeded to mercilessly pin Gladbach in their own half over the net 20 minutes, though there wasn't another clear chance until Kingsley Coman whizzed over in the 23rd.
Much of the opening half hour followed the same pattern. Bayern kept possession well just outside the BMG penalty area. Farke's foals remained compact and disciplined, routinely interrupting the FCB's attempts wot work balls into the box. Bayern mostly worked their attacks through Coman's side. Mané thought he had grabbed the 1-0 in the 34th, but the goal was pulled back aft4er it was ruled that an offside Leroy Sané had interfered with the play. Mané had another goal disallowed for offside five minutes later.
After the two disallowed goals, the NRW guests suddenly opened the scoring completely against the run-of-play. An error from Upamecano enabled Marcus Thuram to rush out unchallenged toward Man duel Neuer's net. The Frenchman kept his nerve even as Upamecano nearly caught up with him and finished cooly past the Bayern keeper for the shock 1-0 lead in the 43rd. Despite being in complete control of the match, Bayern head to head into the tunnel trailing.
Nagelsmann's charges found themselves continually frustrated by Sommer after the restart whilst pressing hard for the equalizer. Sommer denied Müller in an aerial duel on the goal-line in the 48th, made an insane double-save on Mané in the 61st, rushed out to beat and unmarked Sané on a breakaway in the 65th, denied Alphonso Davies in the 72nd, and scraped away Pavard's top corner finish in the 75th. Sommer got a little help from the goalpost when Kimmich struck the iron in the 77th.
Bayern were at long last able to equalize in the 83rd. Davies and the recently subbed on Jamal Musiala set-up Sané, who spotted Sommer committing too early and finally slipped one past the BMG net-minder. Nagelsmann ended up sending on de Ligt to work as an emergency late striker. Sommer capped his historic evening by making a superb save on a de Ligt tomahawk from 16 meters out at 90+1. It seemed fitting enough that the scoreline was preserved by another Sommer masterclass.
With a final xG of 3.2 to Gladbach's 0.8, Bayern will be sorely disappointed that they couldn't pull out a win in front of their hometown fans. Additionally, less than a week after many had declared that the season might be prematurely over, discussions as to whether the FCB can still win matches without a proven central target forward such as Robert Lewandowski will surely dominate conversations over the coming week.