Disappointment for Germany’s Giants: Bayern lose; Late equalisers sink Dortmund, Schalke

Matchday 1 of the Champions League was the dream start to the 2012/13 campaign for teams from Germania. Bayern controlled the game against Valencia and if it wasn’t for a late consolation goal the scoreline would have showed it. Dortmund though unconvincing managed to scrape through against a spirited Ajax side. Schalke were impressive in their victory away to Olympiakos with Julian Draxler and Lewis Holtby delivering great performances.

But the Sophomore Jinx seems to have struck Bundesliga’s representatives in the world’s premiere club competition. Bayern, who had a chance to set a club record for 10 straight victories at the start of the season, fell to a well organized BATE Borisov who now top the group with two wins out of two. Dortmund, coming into this game after hammering Borussia Monchengladbach 5-0 at the weekend, drew 1-1 at the Etihad against a lackluster Man City and will be very disappointed to have not got three points from what was, other than their finishing, their best performance yet this campaign. Schalke conceded a late equaliser at home against a Montpellier after having made and missed a number of chances to finish the game.

Bayern fell to old habits in their game in Belarus as BATE sat deep and let the Bavarians have the majority of the possession. And like so many times last year Bayern were unable to unlock a well organized side and conceded on the counter. It could have ended very differently had Toni Kroos managed to put the ball in the back of the net in the 13th minute. But after having already beaten the keeper he could only hit the post. That was unlucky for Bayern who until then were looking comfortable with having most of the possession but that has rarely been a trouble for them. What has been been a problem is the teams lax defending on the counter and that was how the goal came for BATE. It was bad defending from Javi Martinez who after having dropped back let goalscorer Alexsandr Pavlov drift away after that a miscued shot from Aleksandr Volodko found its way to Pavlov who slotted it past Manuel Neuer.

To anyone who has following Bayern for the last few years what happened next was a familiar sight. Bayern with all their might pressed the opposition relentlessly for the  rest of the game with the opposition situating ten men in their own half. They would come close a number of times for the rest of the game, just not close enough. After having introduced Shaqiri, Pizarro and Schweinsteiger for Martinez, Mandzukic and Badstuber the Bayern Defense was left looking a bit rudimentary. The fact was shown when BATE capitalised on some poor defending by Schweinsteiger and Boateng and got themselves a goal through Vitali Rodionov in the 78th minute. Rodionov’s played a great one-two Olekhnovich but Boateng or Schweinsteiger (who was still fresh) should have tracked the run.

The goal pretty much sealed the result and the greatest night in the history of the Belarusians. But all the pressure from Bayern began to tell as Ribery, Bayern’s best player of the night, collected a ball outside the area and cut past the BATE defense and shot at goal only for the Goalkeeper to deflect it to the underside of the bar from where it bounced back out. Soon enough Ribery finally got the goal in the 91st minute as he shot past the excellent Gorbunov after Shaqiri put him through . It was probably too little to late, but that didn’t stop Bayern from sending everyone into attack. But it was not to be as Dmitri Mozolevski squared the ball to Renan Bresnan to make it 3-1 in Minsk.

It would be premature to suggest that the loss is a disaster for Bayern, but it does put a dent in our record this season considering our recent performances. And BATE’s performance, like Chelsea’s the season before, gives future opponents an idea of how to play us. Ribery was played well throughout the game and probably deserved another goal. Martinez, Boateng and, as far as the first goal is considered,  Badstuber were quite poor.

But at least the loss to BATE was a just result after a disciplined performance by the home side, the draws of Dortmund and Schalke against Manchester City and Montpellier were very unlucky as after having created chance after chance, missed most of them and in the case of Dortmund being denied by the excellent Joe Hart they both managed to fall to late equalisers. City’s equaliser came after Sergio Aguero’s volley bounced off Subotic’s arm, though given that they were barely two feet away from each other Subotic barely stood a chance and it could and maybe should’ve been waved off.

But still Bayern and Schalke have enough quality to get out of their groups without too much fuss. Dortmund were (for the tenth time) absolutely brilliant against City and even though their group does pose a unique challenge but they are definitely better placed than City or Ajax with City still to come to Westfalenstadion and if they can get anything out of the next 2 games against Madrid they should be able to qualify, it would help if Madrid haven’t qualified by the time they travel to Manchester on the 4th of Nov.