Football – Bayern is ready for Barcelona

Even after the top game on Saturday evening, it remained interesting to watch Harry Kane’s routes and ball contacts. After his hat trick in the 4-0 (0-0) win against VfB Stuttgart, the FC Bayern attacker was initially warmed by his coach Vincent Kompany. Shortly afterwards, Leroy Sané handed the ball over to Kane before the 31-year-old Englishman took the stage himself. He held the ball next to his face and took a selfie in front of the south curve.

Offensively, coach Kompany certified his team’s “very good performance” after the victory in the southern summit. And this time the Munich team also played more controlled defensively than before. The message after three games without a win is clear: the Munich team is ready for the trip to FC Barcelona with former Bayern and national coach Hansi Flick. Or in the case of Kane: ready for the duel on Wednesday in the Champions League with his predecessor at the record champions Robert Lewandowski.

The 36-year-old Pole once demonstrated his world class at Borussia Dortmund (2010 – 2014) and FC Bayern (2014 – 2022) before moving to Barcelona a good two years ago for the proud fee of 45 million euros. There, his season record before the league game on Sunday evening against Sevilla FC included twelve goals in eleven appearances across all competitions. Kane has 13 goals in ten games. At the end of Saturday evening, he emerged from the backdrop with the game ball in a white plastic bag to delight his three-year-old son Louis when he woke up on Sunday. »He thinks I play so well every game. “So there’s a lot of pressure on me,” joked Kane.

For the seventh time in his time at FC Bayern since August 2023, he had scored at least three goals in a game; the last time he scored four was in the 9-2 win against Zagreb. This time, Kane scored a so-called flawless hat trick for the Munich team for the first time. First he scored with a right-footed shot from a good 25 meters (57′). Then after Thomas Müller’s beautiful backheel placement out of the crowd of many VfB defensive legs (60th). And finally with a goal (80th), before substitute Kingsley Coman scored his first goal of the season with a curling shot (89th).

Kane showed “what a killer he is,” said sports director Max Eberl. If the Englishman had made better use of his chances, he could easily have scored the five goals that Lewandowski, wearing a Bayern jersey, scored in 8:59 minutes in 2015 in his world record against Wolfsburg. Lewandowski is “one of the best strikers of our generation,” praised Kane.

FC Bayern’s joy was marred by Aleksandar Pavlovic’s broken collarbone. The defensive midfielder had fallen early on his right shoulder and was replaced by João Palhinha. The Portuguese now has the opportunity to establish himself in the starting eleven. Because the year is probably over for Pavlovic. The renewed bad luck with injuries for the 20-year-old German national player was “dramatic,” said Eberl, and as a squad planner he proudly pointed out the depth of the workforce with which the loss could be compensated for.

The sports director was less willing to provide information about a report in “Manager Magazin” about his superior Jan-Christian Dreesen. Accordingly, the CEO threw a magazine at her during a dispute with an employee about three years ago. The woman no longer works for FC Bayern. What’s also piquant about the report is the timing. Dreesen’s contract expires at the end of the season and his future will be decided in the coming weeks. A supervisory board meeting is scheduled for November 11th.

There have been whispers in Munich for a long time that Dreesen’s time at FC Bayern could end. According to the report, the supervisory board also views him with skepticism because, as a member of the executive committee of the German Football League (DFL), he was involved in the botched TV rights allocation. President and supervisory board chairman Herbert Hainer, 70, told the Bild newspaper on Sunday: “In general, we are absolutely satisfied with our board of directors around chairman Jan-Christian Dreesen.” Hainer did not want to comment on the content of the report.

The fact that the old story about Dreesen’s allegedly difficult leadership behavior is now emerging suggests a power struggle and a possible intrigue. At least that’s how Lothar Matthäus sees it. “The fact that this topic is coming up now is perhaps something that has been placed,” said the Sky expert. Dreesen’s deputy, CFO Michael Diederich, is said to have ambitions. Eberl preferred not to delve further into this delicate topic. Just this much: “Michael Diederich and Jan-Christian Dreesen work together extremely trustingly and intensively.” And: “We at Bayern Munich want to be a wagon fortress.”

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