In the first round, the grippy Bavarians offered a firework of chances with anger in their stomachs. Kingsley Coman (9th) and Jamal Musiala (11th) initially failed before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (17th) got the lead. Musiala scored to make it 2-0 (30′), Joshua Kimmich’s free-kick hit the post. Leroy Sané made the decisive 3-0 just before the break whistle.
In the second half, Mainz fought their way into the game with the courage of desperation. Around the 60th minute, Anthony Caci and Ludovic Ajorque created good chances before Bayern got the game back under control before an eventful final phase.
Zerofive coach Bo Svensson was shown the red card for allegedly insulting the referee, Alphonso Davies headed the final score in the 83rd minute and Mainz’s Alexander Hack was sent off a little later with yellow-red.
scoring
0-1 Choupo Moting (17′): Kimmich shifts to Cancelo on the right. He puts Martín on the wrong foot in a one-on-one and crosses softly to the second post. Choupo-Moting exploits the cross in a technically demanding way with the left from an acute angle.
0: 2 Musiala (30′): Müller puts Musiala in a one-on-one situation on the left side of the penalty area. The 19-year-old combines ball and take-along, wobbles out Hanche-Olsen and works the ball into the far corner with his left.
0: 3 Sané (44′): Müller plays the ball high over the Mainz defense. Choupo-Moting puts the ticking leather artistically in the run of Sané, who pushes in with the right hand in front of Dahmen.
0-4 Davies (83′): Kimmich gets the ball slightly to the right 20 meters in front of the goal and spoons the game device into the fully occupied penalty area. Davies climbs up there and heads in to make it 4-0.
In focus: João Cancelo
After just one training session with the team, Manchester City were on loan right away in the starting XI. Coach Julian Nagelsmann surprised with a system change to a 3-1-4-2, with which Cancelo started as a right rail player in front of a defensive back three. The Portuguese interpreted this role extremely offensively and attracted attention early on with fine through passes to Sané (6th) and Müller (6th), before he prepared the lead through Choupo-Moting with a precise cross in the 17th minute.
Cancelo was not often involved in Munich’s ball circulation, but gave the game the necessary width and waited for passes on the sidelines in a winger position. If he got the ball, he was ball-safe and creative. A minor drop-out when he negligently lost the ball in his own penalty area (45′) went unpunished, as did an attempt to clear the ball directly in front of his own goal (68′). In the second half, Cancelo was also challenged defensively more often, so that after irregular appearances recently, he noticeably lost strength and was substituted after 70 minutes.
FT grade: 2
