A curler from Rodri put Manchester City ahead before Erling Haaland finished the job in a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League tie at the Etihad on Tuesday. Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel squared off after German took over during the March international break but his presence has yet to improve Bayern considering that the main goal is Champions League advancement as elimination now looks likely.
It was a gameplan where Bayern looked to hang on and despite poor passing in defense, it worked for the first half with City only leading 1-0 at the break but despite Leroy Sane's best efforts, City would get their end goal by taking advantage of turnovers from Dayot Upamecano to put the game out of sight. Haaland showed strength in his decision making crossing the ball to Bernardo Silva for an easy header after Jack Grealish turned over Upamecano for the second half before scoring the goal to make it 3-0.
That third goal makes sure that City can look to avoid trouble in the away leg but this is a game that has shown just why this may be City's year for Champions League glory. Even withdrawing Kevin de Bruyne in an abundance of caution in the second half saw the team get better in attack rather than worse as their depth and drive at this stage of the season are unmatchable.
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Midfield pivots have been a defining factor of Tuchel vs. Guardiola clashes and technically it was the same case again with the decision to play Bernardo on the wing an inspired one. While his goal was an important one, Bernardo also had six recoveries helping City win the ball high up the pitch. Bayern Munich turned the ball over 15 times to City in the final third and without traditional wing backs, a lot of that pressure came from Grealish and Bernardo.
Tuchel teams are supposed to be able to play out of pressure and out-press their opposition and that didn't happen. They did the pressing part well, clogging the midfield causing City to struggle in build-up early in the match but imploded when it mattered most. The team missed the presence of a true striker but that can't be the only crux for such a poor performance.
Let's look at a few other takeaways from the match:
Again, Haaland does it all
Only so much needs to be said about a player who now has 45 goals and six assists in all competitions but every game that Haaland plays he does something different. For a striker that has scored that much, to get the ball in the box and loft a cross to his teammate shows how selfless he can be on the pitch. While he scores his goals, the team also is able to finish their own chances too which is why he was comfortable crossing at a place where most strikers fire a shot into the side netting.
Haaland would eventually get his goal through another impressive bit of awareness, this time from John Stones. Getting into position to head the ball across the face of goal, all Stones needed to do was head the ball into space and the Norwegian would do the rest. And that he did to put the game out of sight. Just an all-around impressive performance by the best player in the world right now.
What do Bayern do?
While they aren't out of Champions League yet and the team does have enough attacking talent to get back into the tie, Tuchel was brought in for Julian Nagelsmann to win the Bundesliga and also give the team the best chance to win Champions League. Now, the team may have defeated Dortmund to gain a leg up in Bundesliga, they were knocked out of the DFB Pokal and also have one foot out the door in Champions League.
When Tuchel already isn't a manager for long-term solutions, lasting just over two seasons at each stop, could the club already be making another expensive mistake? It shouldn't have been expected for a team that was mostly doing well under Nagelsmann to reach a new level under Tuchel but that's what the club planned on. The loss to Bayer Leverkusen was enough for the board to lose faith in their man and a few more results could possibly see Tuchel meet the same fate. Sometimes this is how the cookie crumbles, but at some pint questions need to be asked of Oliver Kahn as making a change ahead of a massive tie like this one against City likely hurt Bayern's chances to advance.
