Bayern Munich secured another vital three points in the Bundesliga title race, maintaining their top spot with a narrow 1-0 win at SC Freiburg just days after getting knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by them at the Allianz Arena. Bayern had absolutely no shortage of chances on Freiburg’s goal, registering a total of eight chances on frame, and quite frankly, should’ve won the match by more than one goal.
Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Sadio Mane, and Jamal Musiala all came close to scoring with chances of their own at different stages of the match, but it was Matthijs de Ligt’s 51st minute screamer from distance that secured the three points for Thomas Tuchel and company. The strike was hit so well, that keeper Mark Flekken was absolutely rooted to the spot and just watched it fizz past him with pace into his left corner of the net.
It’s the second time De Ligt has scored from distance this season, though this goal was hit far better than the goal he scored against VfB Stuttgart back at the beginning of March. For that goal, it was quite honestly more of a mistake by keeper Fabian Bredlow, but Flekken had absolutely no chance of saving De Ligt’s rocket.
After the match De Ligt joked that he often scores against Flekken during training sessions with the Dutch national team when they’re both away on international duty. “I always score against Mark in training, so I thought I’d just give it a try,” he said (Kerry Hau via @iMiaSanMia). It’s a good thing he did try to, because Bayern’s attackers couldn’t seem to find the final touch in the final third all afternoon, which could’ve made for a very frustrating 0-0 draw had de Ligt not scored.
De Ligt’s wonder strike:
Despite securing the three points, De Ligt was also well aware that it could’ve been far better from Bayern today. There’s no reason why they couldn’t have score more than one goal with the amount of chances they created. At the other end, Freiburg did have chances of their own, too, the closet of which was Ritsu Doan striking Yann Sommer’s woodwork in the first half. “Good, but we still have a lot of room for improvement,” De Ligt replied when he was asked for a brief analysis of Bayern’s overall performance on the afternoon.
Looking for more thoughts on Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory over SC Freiburg, including Thomas Tuchel’s troubles, the lack of precision in the attack, some praise for Matthijs de Ligt, and the near BRAWL? Check out our postgame podcast on Spotify or below:
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