It's been a tough week for Bayern Munich with mounting injuries, Joshua Kimmich experiencing a death in his immediate family, and Vincent Kompany collapsing after training on Friday afternoon, but the German Rekordmeister
didn't skip a beat at SC Freiburg. Thanks to goals from Dayot Upamecano, Serge Gnabry, and Michael Olise, Bayern came away 3-1 winners at SC Freiburg, taking them to the top of the Bundesliga table ahead of a second-round DFB-Pokal clash midweek against FC Magdeburg and next weekend's der Klassiker
vs. Borussia Dortmund.
Upamecano's rare solo run forward opened the scoring for Bayern in what was a first half they largely controlled, but it was evident that this was a starting eleven that hadn't really played together before. Aaron Danks and the rest of Kompany's coaching staff weren't exactly spoiled for choice with depth, but they made it work, and Serge Gnabry doubled Bayern's lead three minutes before the halftime break.
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In the second half, changes from Freiburg sparked a bit of life, and Vincenzo Grifo was particularly troublesome for Bayern. Igor Matanović also called Jonas Urbig into action on more than one occasion, and the pressure really started to mount tenfold after Tom Bischof's unfortunate own goal in the 82nd minute. With the way momentum was going by that point, it looked like Freiburg were going to press on and find an equalizer, but Olise pounced on a bit of a mix-up from keeper Mio Backhaus in stoppage time to seal the deal for Bayern.
Speaking after the match, Gnabry said he felt Bayern were the deserved winners despite a cagey end to the second half where it felt like Bayern were hanging on for three points."I think we were the better team throughout the game. The final 15 to 20 minutes, of course, were a little shaky after they pulled one back. But in the end, we came away with a 3–1 win, which shows character and demonstrates that we can remain solid even during difficult spells. Upa's goal was incredible, of course. I certainly wouldn't have expected that before the game, but it was great to see how calmly he finished it," Bayern's number 7 explained on a night where he had his first Bundesliga start of the season and first goal of the season (via @iMiaSanMia
).
Due to the injury to Luis Diaz, Gnabry will likely get more chances in the near future, too, as the Colombian is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks and there are English Weeks on the horizon.
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