4 things we learnt from Champions League midweek
Champions league football was back after more than two months of a break. In the opening night, Bayern Munich and Chelsea visited Shakhtar Donetsk and PSG respectively. The day after, it was Real Madrid’s turn to re-visit Gelsenkirchen for the second time in a year. FC Basel managed to hold FC Porto for a draw in Basel.Some of the games had tactical importance while others revealed the flaws in systems of the teams. Let us have a look at the 4 main things that we learnt from these games:
#1 Blunt Bayern Munich
I wrote an article a month ago stating the five reasons why Bayern Munich will not win the Champions League this season. Pep Guardiola, the Bayern manager, has still not learnt from his mistakes. His positional play failed in Lviv, and Bayern could get nothing even though they enjoyed a major share of the possession. Shakhtar Donetsk managed to replicate what Wolfsburg did to Bayern Munich.
Bayern, last season, had problems in penetrating the defense of deep sitting teams. It has prevailed even this season. Against Shakhtar, on Tuesday, they somehow managed to put the ball into the 18-yard box but were poor in front of the goal. The forwards lacked the killer instinct. Bayern Munich players now regret not scoring any goals.
"We had some problems in attack today. We weren't able to play as we expected. But there is still a second game, which we aim to win though the little details will be decisive. It would have been great if we had scored today." Mario Goetze told in the post match conference.
Shakhtar defended well by closing down the opponents and leaving them with very less space to create something from. Since Bayern were still searching for a goal, many players pressed forward. Whenever the hosts counter-attacked, Bayern had to resort to tackles to stop them. This also disrupted Bayern’s free flow. Teams like Real Madrid and Chelsea, or similar teams that are comfortable in scoring from counter attacks, can easily pick the Bavarians apart and steamroll them.