Bayern narrowly beaten by Manchester City in Green Bay

FC Bayern suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Manchester City in the second and final match of their 2022 Audi Summer Tour. Erling Haaland scored the only goal of the game on 12 minutes for the English club. FCB will now return to Munich for their last preparations ahead of the start of the 2022/23 season.

Julian Nagelsmann opted to try out a different formation from the one he used in the first match of the tour against DC United. He set up his team in a 3-4-3 this time, with captain Manuel Neuer in goal behind Benjamin Pavard, Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Hernandez. The midfield four consisted of Kingsley Coman, Joshua Kimmich, Marcel Sabitzer and Alphonso Davies, with a fluid front three of Leroy Sane, Thomas Müller and Serge Gnabry. Sadio Mane was unavailable for this second friendly having returned to Munich following his trip to Morocco to pick up the African Player of the Year award.

However, the world was forced to wait a little while longer for the first-ever soccer match at Lambeau Field as storms around Green Bay, Wisconsin, forced kick-off to be delayed by 15 minutes until 6:15pm local time. When the game did finally get going, Bayern took to the pitch wearing black armbands in honour of the late Uwe Seeler, the German football legend who passed away this week at the age of 85.

Haaland haunts Bayern again

The first half started with the sort of tempo you’d expect from the champions of Germany and England. Bayern had the ball in the back of the net first through Gnabry, but the flag was raised for offside against Müller before he delivered the square ball. And it was a pass across the face of goal that did the job for City at the other end when Jack Grealish was slipped in behind on the left and played a low ball into the middle for Haaland to turn home in his first game since leaving the Bundesliga. The Norwegian’s sixth goal against Bayern in his eighth appearance, but he’d never before even earned a point as a result.

The game was then halted before it could restart and the players left the pitch due to another weather warning for storms. It was almost an hour before they returned. It was decided that the halves would be shorted to 40 minutes each, with a quick five-minute turnaround for half-time. And once the players completed their warm-ups again, they continued at the same frenetic pace as before, with both teams seemingly taking turns to attack at speed. The closest Bayern came was through Gnabry, but he missed Davies’s acrobatic ball back across the face of goal only by a matter of inches. Haaland then thought he had his and City’s second, but saw it chalked off by the offside flag.

Substitutions but no change to the score

Sven Ulreich and Noussair Mazraoui replaced Neuer and Coman respectively during the brief break, before Jamal Musiala and new Dutch duo Matthijs de Ligt and Ryan Gravenberch also joined the action. Clear-cut chances remained at a premium, however. Riyad Mahrez had a powerful effort after a barnstorming run from Kevin de Bruyne but couldn’t beat Ulreich.

Despite making 10 substitutions, with Kimmich the only player to see the game through, the Reds grew stronger as the clock ticked on. Youngster Gabriel Vidovic had a crack from 18 yards after a neat turn but was unable to find the target, while Rico Lewis struck the post for City before the 80 minutes were finally up.

Bayern now fly straight back to Munich. Their next fixture is one that counts as they head to RB Leipzig for the season-opening Supercup on 30 July before the Bundesliga season kicks off the following Friday.

Live match report for fcbayern.com by Charlie Mason