Bayern put on the relegation – Sport – Kommersant
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In the football Champions League, the first matches of the quarter-final stage took place. Manchester City beat Bayern 3-0 at home with a big score and can safely go to the second leg in Munich. Inter also performed successfully, defeating Benfica on the road – 2: 0. English and Italian clubs made a weighty bid to reach the semi-finals.
Of course, in the current Champions League quarter-final, the confrontation between Manchester City and Bayern stands apart, because both teams were considered almost the main favorites of the tournament and, if not for the vicissitudes of the draw that brought them together so early, they could well have met in the decisive match . It is no coincidence that the English and German giants now share the lead in the UEFA club rankings.
Bayern in the previous play-off round has already unhooked another giant – the French PSG. True, then it was still headed by Julian Nagelsmann, and now Thomas Tuchel is already coaching. It seems that Munich did not become weaker from the change of mentors. Tuchel is a highly respected specialist and has already scored an important victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga title race, but then sensationally flew out of the German Cup with his new team. And this caused talk that he still hadn’t settled into Bayern. At the same time, experts said that Tuchel knows how to play against Pep Guardiola’s City, because not so long ago the German led Chelsea and even defeated the Citizens in the 2020/21 Champions League final.
Munich entered the game without the injured Eric Choupo-Motinga, and Serge Gnabry, who was by no means a center forward, again performed the functions of the forward forward for them. Especially in comparison with the reference ram Erling Haaland, who scored 44 goals for City this season. The stakes were high that the Norwegian would also score against Bayern. And he almost succeeded when he put pressure on goalkeeper Jan Sommer, who was a bit late with the transfer, and almost covered him dangerously close to the empty net. Manuel Neuer’s replacement was just lucky. In the middle of the first half, Jack Grealish had already prepared a scoring chance for Haaland, but he decided to hit on the technique and did not turn his foot, sending the ball straight at Sommer.
The guests, who had been looking for approaches to the Manchester penalty area for a long time, also organized a rather dangerous attack. Leroy Sane seeped down the left flank to the baseline and gave a pass to Jamal Musiale, who hit the very corner and in such a way that goalkeeper Ederson would hardly have had time to react. However, the hosts were rescued by defender Ruben Dias, who blocked the blow. But no one could block the shot of the City defender Rodri because of the free kick. The Spaniard spun the ball in a beautiful arc to the area of \u200b\u200bthe “nine”, and even Sommer, who dragged on in a spectacular jump, was powerless. And what the Swiss is capable of, he showed when he fought off Ilkay Gundogan already in a prone position. Although the Manchester captain, probably, should not have given a chance to the goalkeeper in such a situation.
In general, the hosts had a better first half and practically did not allow Bayern, which never even hit the target, and the attacker Gnabry was completely lost on the field. The same Haaland was also under strict supervision, but still periodically flashed, as they say, in the frame. Tuchel certainly needed to somehow revive the game in attack. He did not make substitutions during the break, however, apparently, he recharged the players emotionally. And already in the debut of the second half, Sane checked Ederson from a distance, and then had a real opportunity to level the score when he almost ran one on one with the goalkeeper. Here Ederson City frankly saved.
Bayern opened up, and so did the match. Sane tried to repeat Rodri’s kick and Ederson dragged again. And when Matthijs de Ligt actually drove the ball into the net after a corner, Nathan Ake came to the rescue of the Brazilian goalkeeper. But Sommer was not inactive, reflecting the blows of the same Ake and Dias. Moreover, his own teammates threw him work, and sometimes created huge problems, sowing panic in the penalty area when drawing the ball. As a result, Munich still brought a goal. Central defender Dayo Upamecano made an unforgivable loss at his goal, Grealish immediately launched Haaland into the breakthrough, who unexpectedly showed himself in accompaniment and perfectly hung on Bernardo Silva, and the Portuguese already scored with a header.
However, Haaland was not left without a goal when he received a discount from John Stones for free space in the penalty area and easily dealt with Sommer. And it was also the goalkeeper of Bayern who saved the team from a bigger defeat, because in the end Rodri was very close to the double. But even 0:3 is an extremely unfortunate result for the German club. It will be, to put it mildly, difficult, if not impossible, to win back such a handicap from City in the second leg. So Manchester are now the clear favorites in this confrontation.
In another quarter-final, Benfica hosted Inter, who had already knocked out Porto in the 1/8 finals. But this Portuguese club gave the Milanese a lot of trouble, and the Lisbons looked even cooler this season and, recall, won the group against PSG with Juventus, then easily rolled out Brugge at the start of the playoffs. In addition, the team of Simone Inzaghi has clearly slowed down recently and scored only four points in six matches of the Italian championship, falling back to fifth place. But in the Champions League, she is still doing great. In Lisbon, Inter won 2-0 thanks to goals from Nicolò Barella and Romelu Lukaku from the penalty spot, although the hosts also had good scoring chances. Here, too, everything seems to be clear. At home, the Milanese, most likely, will not miss their goal and will put pressure on Benfica.
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