RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich: Title Party Momentarily Delayed (3-3)
In a match where a win would have crowned Bayern Munich champions after a dominant domestic season, RB Leipzig stunned them early with a two-goal blitz. Bayern roared back in the second half, mounting a champion’s comeback and briefly beginning to celebrate. But a late Leipzig equalizer postponed the party—only for results the next day to confirm the title’s return to the Bavarians once again.
Tactical analysis and match report by Fahd Ahmed.
The visitors’ section of the Red Bull Arena was understandably in high spirits ahead of kick-off. A victory for Bayern Munich would have been the crowning moment for them. Although it has been mutually agreed by most Bundesliga supporters that the league was pretty much wrapped up, the Bayern fans were amped to see their team clinch another Meisterschale to place in their decorated trophy cabinet.
For RB Leipzig, this was a vital game in their quest to attain Champions League football despite a tumultuous season. Under interim manager Zsolt Löw, their inconsistent performances have continued. However, with Mainz dropping off in the final run-in of the season, there is a realistic opportunity to make the top four cut. Nevertheless, it is still a very tight race as Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund are gathering momentum.
Löw made several personnel changes to the side that lost convincingly to Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend. In defence, the suspended El Chadaille Bitshiabu was replaced by David Raum. This meant that there was an adjustment in the shape as Löw reverted to a back four after utilizing a defensive five against Frankfurt. Midfielders Ridle Baku and Christoph Baumgartner were replaced by Amadou Haidara and Kevin Kampl. Lastly, up front, Loïs Openda returned to be paired with Benjamin Šeško.
Vincent Kompany, on the other hand, only made two adjustments to the starting eleven that he fielded against Mainz. Thomas Müller replaced Harry Kane, who was suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card for the campaign. Meanwhile, Kim Min-jae, who picked up an Achilles injury, was changed for Sacha Boey. As this was not a like-for-like alteration, Josip Stanišić featured at center-back whilst Boey played at fullback.
Leipzig started the game positively, whilst Bayern looked to control the tempo by dominating ball possession. However, an early strike from the hosts revealed a drawback of Kompany’s in-possession approach.
The dangers of isolating defenders against Leipzig’s striker duo
As Bundesliga fans are aware, Bayern prefer adopting a 2-4-4 shape when they have the ball. The fullbacks advance into the half-spaces to compact the space in the middle and execute a better counter-press. Higher up the field, the attacking line of four try to exploit the space between the lines, combine in tight spaces with their teammates, and force one-versus-one isolations.
Löw instructed his side to be patient without the ball and form a passive middle block that resembled a narrow 4-4-2 structure. The wingers, Simons and Kampl, ensured to tuck infield so that they could track Laimer and Boey better. Furthermore, the distances between the different Leipzig defensive lines were decreased so that it was difficult for Bayern to play through the center.
Many Bundesliga teams have tried to fend off Bayern by defending in a low block. However, they often met the same outcome as their star quality attackers could outdo most defenders in the league. A moment of individual or combined brilliance would be enough to unlock defences. That is the downside of such passive defensive strategies. The more possession ceded to Bayern, the more time they must defend against top-quality forwards.
However, for Leipzig, there was a valuable upside on the other end of the trade-off. Due to Kompany’s aggressive on-ball shape, the center-backs were usually isolated against Šeško and Openda. In theory, being this aggressive is a sensible plan if the manager has the suitable defenders to cope with high intensity and fast transitions. However, the pair that Kompany started – Dier and Stanišić – are not suitable to such games. On the other hand, one of Openda and Šeško’s strengths includes attacking quickly on the offensive breaks. Thus, the two-versus-two match-up on the last line was an advantage for Leipzig if they turned over possession deep and accessed their forwards immediately.
In the 11th minute, this exactly plays out after a misplaced pass by Michael Olise is intercepted by Xavi Simons. From deep, the Dutch midfielder finds Šeško in behind after attempting a through ball with the outside of his boot. Before this pass is made, there is a clear two-versus-two isolation. Šeško easily has the upper hand over Dier, in terms of pace, and beats him to it to receive the ball. During this time, Jonas Urbig had stepped out of his line to clear the pass. However, realizing that he will not be able to make it on time, Urbig begins retreating. To his misfortune, he slightly slips on the wet surface – thereby opening a huge gap for a chipped finish. Still, from this distance, a long shot was tough to execute.
Nevertheless, Šeško backed himself to score from here. But rather than trying to dink the goalkeeper, the Leipzig striker curled a shot around him with the outside of his boot to find the net. The ridiculous finish opened the scoring dramatically.
11th minute: A fast counterattack from Leipzig exploited the two-versus-two match with Šeško getting on the end of Simons’ pass before delivering a stunning finish.
Wind of change in the second half and a dramatic late dagger
The resilient first-half performance by Leipzig was topped off by another from a set-piece situation that was awarded after Šeško was fouled by Serge Gnabry. The freekick was delivered by Raum, whose pinpoint cross found Lukas Klostermann at the back post, who guided the ball to the far corner – doubling Leipzig’s lead.
Structurally, both teams looked the same in the second half. However, there was a notable change in their intensity. Bayern aimed to string quicker passes and combinations to break down the defensive block, whilst the fullbacks, Laimer and Boey, ventured forward with supporting runs more often. Meanwhile, Leipzig did not sit deep and passively from the outset. They pushed the defensive line a few yards higher and pressed Bayern quickly when they shifted the ball to the flanks. However, as the second half wore on and the visitors pushed more players forward, Löw’s team were pinned deep. Thus, Bayern was able to consistently enter the final third and probe Leipzig’s defence through crosses, cutbacks, central passes, and shots.
Kompany, unhappy with the 2-0 scoreline, made a few personnel adjustments to give Bayern more offensive firepower. Kingsley Coman was subbed on for Müller, who was largely ineffective on the evening. Soon after the substitutions, Sané and Olise combined in an attacking transition that led to a corner from which Dier scored. Although the Englishman did extremely well to guide a header from the near post, Leipzig’s set-piece organization was questionable as they were easily overloaded in the near-post zone.
The second goal came in quick succession after a careless error by the home team. From kick-off, Leipzig played it back to Castello Lukeba, who passed it to Raum. Bayern pressured them instantly and forced the left-back to make a quick decision. With the pass falling to Raum’s weak foot and Sané nearby, he hastily looked to clear the ball. However, the pass was underhit and fell in the middle where Aleksandar Pavlović won the aerial duel and set up Olise, who scored. In a flash, Bayern had equalized, and Leipzig were left frustrated.
With the momentum clearly shifting to one team, it felt like one team was bound to carry it forward and seal a comeback. This eventually became true, and it exposed the drawbacks of Leipzig’s deep defensive block. As touched on before, they met the same fate that many opponents that try to implement this strategy endured. Bayern piled on the pressure and tried to pierce through Leipzig’s guard, which eventually happened as a few of their star forwards combined.
In the 83rd minute, Gnabry received the ball centrally and faced the compact Leipzig block ahead of him. He bravely tries to take them on, and after dazzling through a couple of players, he finds Joshua Kimmich, who flicks it onto the path of Sané. Since the hosts are so deep and narrow, the German winger has time to receive the ball and launch a shot that gives them the lead.
83rd minute: Gnabry’s dribble through the middle of Leipzig’s block disorients them before the ball eventually finds Sané, whose shot gave Bayern the lead.
The match and the league title seemed to be wrapped up in the final minutes of the tie in the Red Bull Arena. The Bayern supporters and players had already begun celebrating and painting the stadium red. In the final moments, the Bavarians retreated and defended their penalty box whilst Leipzig attempted a late surge to recoup a point. In the 94th minute, they finally found another breakthrough after a chaotic sequence ending with the substitute Yussuf Poulsen receiving the ball behind the defensive line. An adept dink over Urbig concluded the thrilling game that swung both ways but finally ended right in the center as both sides fairly shared a point.
Takeaways
The closely fought contest was a spectacle that entertained Bundesliga fans thoroughly. What was expected by some to be a straightforward victory and crowning moment for Bayern proved to be far from that. Nevertheless, they were officially declared Bundesliga champions after impressively holding off Bayer Leverkusen at 2-2 – although Julian Schuster would have been frustrated with the two late goals that they conceded.
Löw would have been frustrated by the result considering that Leipzig had a two-goal lead ahead of the second half. Furthermore, that performance underpinned their issues this season – consistency. Not just between games but also within a full ninety minutes. Nevertheless, a point against the best team in the league is valuable in their hunt for Champions League football.
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