Villarreal have eliminated Bayern Munich from the Champions League and reminded us that European club football does still have a beating heart.
As often happens in the aftermath of a surprise result, the benefit of hindsight offers a little clarity as to how it came about in the first place. Bayern Munich needed a late goal to draw the first leg of their round of 16 match against RB Salzburg, and although they have looked as imperious as ever as they continue to saunter towards their 10th consecutive Bundesliga title – they’re currently nine points ahead of second-placed Borussia Dortmund and 17 clear of third-placed Bayer Leverkusen – their season has been dotted with moments of carelessness, such as their 4-2 defeat to VfL Bochum in February.
When Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring six minutes into the second half against Villarreal, it did feel somewhat as though a dam that had been creaking was about to burst open. This, after all, was the Bayern Munich team which coasted through its group stage with six successive wins – one of only three group winners to achieve this, alongside Liverpool and Ajax. They have already scored 86 goals in just 29 league games this season, an average of almost exactly three per game.
But on this occasion, the dam may have strained as Villarreal continued to sit back, but it didn’t burst. And then, with two minutes left, Giovani Lo Celso broke and fed the ball to Gerard Moreno, who passed sumptuously across a stretched Bayern back line for Samuel Chukwueze to sweep the ball in from close range and knock them out of the Champions League. Rumours of the death of La Liga may have been somewhat overstated.
Representing a town with a population which could comfortably fit inside the Allianz Arena in Munich, and with a team dotted with names that are half-familiar from Premier League seasons gone by – those wondering about whatever happened to Etienne Capoue, Francis Coquelin and Juan Foyth, for example, may wonder…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…