The high of Thomas Tuchel winning his first match as manager of Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena was quickly quelled with Bayern’s defeat to SC Freiburg that knocked them out of the DFB-Pokal. Dayot Upamecano’s 19th minute header was undone by a sensational strike from Nicolas Hofler and then the ultimate dagger into Bayern’s heart came in stoppage time when Jamal Musiala’s stray arm granted Freiburg a penalty, which Lucas Holer converted.
It was another historic night in the Pokal for Christian Streich’s side just a season after finishing up as runners up in the competition, having lost to RB Leipzig in the final in Berlin. From Bayern’s perspective, the treble dreams are over, and the rate at which they’re surrendering leads is cause for concern, especially with Manchester City looming on the horizon in the Champions League and the Bundesliga title race still being very tight.
After the loss to Freiburg, Joshua Kimmich voiced his frustration at having blown yet another lead in domestic competition. “In general, we lose too many games after taking the lead. Our destination was clearly Berlin. With us, you have the feeling that there is just a bit too little passion. It pisses me off brutally! Another title less that we can win,” he vented (via Az’s Maximilian Koch).
On the overall balance, Bayern did look to be the better side throughout the majority of the proceedings, and they had more than enough chances to kill the tie off, but just could not find the right touch in the final third. While both sides were level (4) with shots on frame, Bayern out-possesses the visitors 68%-32% and had 16 shots to their 10. In what was perhaps a bit of biased viewpoint, Kimmich felt that Bayern deserved to win and that Freiburg didn’t offer enough to seal the fate that unfolded. “We are eliminated, although in my opinion it was not possible to be eliminated. Freiburg actually had nothing at all. A long-range shot and a penalty,” he said (via kicker’s Georg Holzner).
All things considered, it was only Tuchel’s second match as Bayern manager, with limitied time with the majority of the squad due to the international break coinciding with Julian Nagelsmann’s sacking and Tuchel officially taking over. For what it’s worth, Kimmich said that there are still some Nagelsmann principles that are engrained into the current squad, since Tuchel’s tenure is still in its infancy. “Yes, of course, we still have a few principles from Julian. That then mixes with the new,” he remarked when he was asked about the topic (via Georg Holzner).
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