Brighton
Man City
Udinese
Roma
Heerenveen
PSV Eindhoven
Go Ahead
Feyenoord
The past week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for Bayern Munich. They beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 with a brilliant performance in Paris, but were knocked back a peg in the Bundesliga by virtue of a 3-2 loss at Borussia Monchengladbach, they’re domestic bogey team. Dayot Upamecano’s early red card was the point of contention from the latter encounter and Julian Nagelsmann had to quickly apologize for comments he made towards the officiating crew after the full time whistle at Borussia Park, but the blushes were spared from being made even worse when Union Berlin failed to beat Schalke 04 and go top of the Bundesliga table.
The title race is a tight as it’s ever been so far this season and what was once a seven-point lead at the top for Bayern has quickly been reduced to a three-way tie with them, Borussia Dortmund and Union Berlin, all with 43 points. Bayern, of course, has the superior goal difference but next weeks clash against Union is now excellently poised to bare significant title race ramifications.
Nagelsmann has also shown a preference recently to deploying a back three systems, which seems to have worked wonders ever since the 4-0 DFB-Pokal win over Mainz in the round of 16 of the competition, That snapped hat had been a run of three, straight 1-1 draws in the Bundesliga against RB Leipzig, FC Koln, and Eintracht Frankfurt, respectively. The Monchengladbach loss was the only outlier, but one could easily argue that the result would’ve been far different had Upamecano not been sent off in such controversial fashion.
In this flagship episode of Bavarian Podcast Works, Schnitzel and Tom discuss:
- Bayern’s week of results in the UCL and Bundesliga (PSG, ‘Gladbach)
- Upamecano NOT deserving a red card
- Julian Nagelsmann’s tactical decisions to start using a back three more often
- Leon Goretzka’s midfield role. Is he performing well enough?
- How soon and often will Mane and Mazraoui be involved now that they are back training
- The TIGHT Bundesliga title race with Bayern, BVB and Union all level on points
- Expectations for the second leg in the UCL vs. PSG @ the Allianz Arena
- Neymar’s injury vs. Lille. Is it overstated, overplayed? Will he play leg 2?
Be sure to stay tuned to Bavarian Podcast Works for all of your up to date coverage on Bayern Munich and Germany. Follow us on Twitter @BavarianFBWorks, @TheBarrelBlog, @tommyadams71, @bfwinnn, and more.
