Taking down Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga is a herculean task to say the least. Teams committing far too forward risk incurring the full wrath of a mammoth scoreline. Mainz however beat Bayern at their own game. They counter-pressed harder in the opponents half, dug deeper in their own half and were clinical in front of goal. It was a spectacular game from the Mainz viewpoint and a terrible show from Bayern’s.
The Mainz coach Bo Henriksen propelled his men with constant prodding, pushing and working his players up from the sidelines. Post the game, he opened up about the Bayern dismantling job. He had this to say (via FCBayern.com).
“It’s a better feeling than the last two times. We were very well prepared, also tactically. We were simply there and that’s important when you play against Bayern Munich, one of the best teams in the world. You have to be there and be brave – and that’s what we were. The key today was that we were brave with the ball and used our space. From a tactical point of view, today was a really good day,” Henriksen said.
Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images
Bo rightly emphasized on Mainz showing a lot of bravery especially early on matching stride for stride with a high press to win the ball in Bayern’s half. Fortune like they say favors the brave, and favor it did when Mainz needed the first goal to convert all the pressure into an outcome on the scoresheet to further boost their confidence. Amidst the bodies in the box, crossed ball ping ponged its way to Jae-sung Lee who found the back of the net twice on the day. The second goal deflected off of Kimmich’s outstretched foot, completely taking the Bayern goalkeeper Daniel Peretz out of the equation.
Mainz redeemed their DFB Pokal loss to Bayern in front of their home crowd with a big win that will boost confidence before travelling to Frankfurt for their final game of the year. Bayern meanwhile, have a week to recoup before hosting RB Leipzig.
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