Sané, Musiala, and Kane power Bayern past Hoffenheim on "Beckenbauer Tribute Night"
On an evening during which German football bid farewell to perhaps its most iconic legend, two emergent young German talents in scintillating form helped the German record championships get their calendar year off to an excellent start.
Leroy Sané twice serviced his younger Bayern and German national team colleague Jamal Musiala en -route to a 2-0 win over visiting TSG 1899 Hoffenheim at the Allianz Arena.
Harry Kane capped off a perfect evening, following up Musiala's scorer's brace and Sané's pair of assists with his 22nd goal of the current league campaign.
Thomas Tuchel's FC Bayern München have concluded their 2023/24 "Hin-Runde" with a 2-0 win over visiting TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Friday night at the Allianz Arena. Leroy Sané and Jamal Musiala combined twice to ensure victory over Pellegrino Matarazzo's visiting Kraichgauer. Three points constitutes the best possible start to the calendar year for the defending champs. The German giants will still finish the first half of the current season at least one point behind league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Leroy Sané twice serviced his younger Bayern and German national team colleague Jamal Musiala en -route to a 2-0 win over visiting TSG 1899 Hoffenheim at the Allianz Arena.
Harry Kane capped off a perfect evening, following up Musiala's scorer's brace and Sané's pair of assists with his 22nd goal of the current league campaign.
FCB trainer Tuchel made two changes to the XI that defeated Wolfsburg 2-1 on the final match-day of the 2023 calendar year. A once again healthy Joshua Kimmich returned to take the place of young Aleksandr Pavlovic in central midfield. Dutch central defender Matthjis de Ligt too was once again fit enough enough to start and took over for the on-international duty Min-Jae Kim.
TSG trainer Matarazzo, meanwhile, employed four changes to the squad that drew Darmstadt 3-3. Wout Weghorst and Maximilian Beier took the place of Ihlas Bebou and Umut Tohumcu. Florian Grillitssch anchored the back-three in place of John Anthony Brooks. Stanley Nsoki started to the left of Grillitsch in place of the recently departed Kevin Vogt.
Following some stirring pre-kickoff tributes to recently departed Bayern legend Franz Beckenbauer, the Bavarian hosts mostly dominated possession in the early going. Tuchel's charges nevertheless found it difficult to make even slight pinpricks against a very compact Sinsheimer constellation. Bayern achieved greater penetration after the quarter-of-an-hour mark, yet still lacked accuracy in the final third.
Signs that the breakthrough would come began to emerge shortly thereafter, however. Sané broke through in the 17th and was only impeded by an Anton Stach tactical foul. The record champions continued to knock on the door during a pair of short corners. Sané serviced Musiala cleverly on the half right on the second in the 18th. Musiala supplied an equally impressive finish from a tight angle.
The match flattened out somewhat after the 1-0. Some half chances from the hosts and a pair of decent counterattacks from the guests hardly constituted highlight-worthy material. Matters eventually picked up ten minutes after the restart. Harry Kane saw a goal disallowed for offside in the 56th. Musiala struck the post two minutes later.
Surprisingly enough, it was Matarazzo's men who looked more likely to score in the next phase. Manuel Neuer had to furnish strong interventions to stop a pair of efforts from Beier and Andrej Kramaric in quick succession just after the hour mark. Beier then wasted a golden opportunity alone in front of Neuer with a strike of the crossbar in the 65th.
The TSG spurt would prove short-lived. Musiala and Sané again combined in the 70th with some respective fancy footwork. In the end, Sané serviced Musiala once more on the 2-0. A second yellow card for TSG midfielder Grischa Prömel four minutes after the second goal effectively put the game beyond the reach of Matarazzo's Kraichgauer.
Kane remained active in seeking a third goal via a couple of late shots on target. The Englishman finally got his tally at the start of second half injury time. The recently subbed on Leon Goretza unlocked the Bundesliga's leading goal-scorer. Kane's finish on his 22nd tally of the current campaign.