Mhe assistant referee knelt next to the post with a piece of tape – and a cheeky question immediately came up. The soccer players from FC Bayern and FC Augsburg were already standing on the pitch when the assistant quickly repaired the small tear in the net of the goal. Because this was not Augsburg’s goal in the first half, but Bayern’s, the team that hadn’t conceded a goal in 180 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain and its super strikers Mbappé and Messi, one could cheekily ask: The repair would be it wasn’t necessary at all, was it?
But it wasn’t even 180 seconds before Mërgim Berisha, the center forward from Augsburg, shot the ball into Bayern’s goal – and, of course without knowing or wanting to, answered cheeky reporter questions: He hit part of the goal net , which the assistant referee had previously repaired. And somehow also into the feeling of certain victory that was felt this Saturday in the stadium in Munich, where the German champions had won 2-0 against PSG on Wednesday.
But that was more or less the cheekiness of FC Augsburg. The outsiders played so passively, especially in defence, that the question of why FC Bayern hadn’t actually scored six, seven or eight goals would have been anything but cheeky. Because there were five, Munich won 5:3. But this game wasn’t as exciting as one might think based on the result.
On Saturday, coach Julian Nagelsmann used some of his team’s players who only had supporting roles on Wednesday: the wingers Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané. Or the outside player João Cancelo. It was he who quickly moved into the leading role. Because he was duped by Mërgim Berisha before the 0-1. And because he kept duping his opponents afterwards. In the seventh minute he shot the ball on goal for the first time. In the 15th minute he shot the ball into the goal for the first time. And with this 1-1 at the latest, the feeling of certain victory was there again.
Four minutes passed and Cancelo was sprinting down the sideline again before he was fouled. The result: Joshua Kimmich free kick, Matthijs de Ligt header, Sadio Mané bicycle kick, Benjamin Pavard shot – 2:1. Defender Pavard, who was ruled out against PSG due to a red card suspension, then scored the next goal in the 35th minute. It was fitting for his current condition that it was a so-called scissor punch (although this mid-air feat was a tad less impressive given how much leeway he had for it). And when Leroy Sané headed the ball into the goal to make it 4-1 in the 45th minute, the first visitors to the stadium were already on the steps of the main stand.
In the second half – and that said it all about the first half – Augsburg coach Enrico Maassen brought on four new players. The most notable: French striker Irvin Cardona. In the 60th minute he won a penalty against de Ligt which Berisha then safely pocketed. In the 90th minute he didn’t give the assist but scored the goal himself.
And yet that didn’t make anyone in Munich nervous, because in the meantime Alphonso Davies had scored the 5-2 (74th) after Cancelo’s preliminary work.
“I’m satisfied with the result,” said Julian Nagelsmann later in the press conference. And with that, at the latest, everything was really said about this game.
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