Joao Cancelo makes hasty exit instead of celebrating with Bayern Munich after BVB victory

Maybe Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was on to something.

As Bayern Munich was celebrating its massive victory over Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker, there was one player who was missing from the postgame gathering — loanee Joao Cancelo.

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Cancelo entered the match in the 79th minute for stating left-back Alphonso Davies and put in a very solid — yet brief — shift for the Bavarians. The Portuguese star was “frustrated”, however, and did not partake in any of the post-match festivities.

According to Bayern Munich sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidžić, it was no big deal.

“These are emotions after the game. It’s not a problem. It’s normal for a player to be disappointed when they don’t play,” Salihamidžić told Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “Cancelo is a top player and will get his playing time.”

Whatever the case, it was bad optics to bail on the team’s celebration. This kind of behavior is familiar to some fans, who followed the James Rodriguez saga in Bavaria. When the Real Madrid loanee’s playing time went south, so did his attitude.

For Cancelo’s sake, Bayern Munich should hope that this was a one-off issue.

Interested in a more in-depth look at the game? Curious about why Thomas Tuchel chose a 4-2-3-1? How did it differ from Nagelsmann’s Bayern? We talk about all that and more in our postgame podcast. Listen to it below or at this link.

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