A day after the successful friendly win against Olympique Marseille (1-0) at the Audi Football Summit, Bayern's preparations continued at competition level. In the session on Saturday morning, Hansi Flick instructed the senior players who had little or no playing time the day before against the French Ligue 1 runners-up to contest a competitive friendly comprising three periods of 20 minutes against a group of the record champions' U19 and reserve team players.
Fast-paced game in warm summer temperatures
"The team must show quality and intensity in training and be fully focused. If we always train well, we'll be a tad better," the 55-year-old Bayern coach had already demanded on Friday, with one eye on the week of preparation for the Champions League round of sixteen second-leg match against Chelsea on 8 August. "Success is a process, you have to work on it every day - and that's what we'll do," Flick continued.
His players put this into practice perfectly, and the next morning, in the warm summer temperatures, they put in a committed performance. The fast-paced practice match against U19 coach Martín Demichelis' selection was decided through three goals in the final third of the match - Joshua Zirkzee scored twice and Malik Tillmann once - to give Flick's side a 3-0 win. One of the most striking players on the pitch was Leroy Sané, who showed plenty of pace, provided the assist for Zirkzee's second goal with a strong solo run and and struck the post himself.
Fully focused on the Champions League
The 24-year-old Germany international was able to show off his skills in the internal practice match, as were the other new arrivals Alexander Nübel, Tanguy Nianzou and Adrian Fein. The quartet did not make an appearance in the Champions League dress rehearsal against Marseille on Friday. All four of FC Bayern's summer newcomers are no longer eligible to play in Europe's premier competition this season.
Flick had already announced on Friday after the friendly that he wanted to "split" the training groups from now on. "We still have one week left. From now on, we're fully focused on the Champions League," the boss explained and emphasised: "We still have to work on a few things, we'll also analyse the friendly (against Marseile, editor's note) to see what we can do and fine-tune things. We want to use the time well."
Click here for the highlights of the game against Marseille as well as the match report:
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