When Jamal Musiala's work in the match against Hertha BSC came to an end after just under an hour, the Allianz Arena got even louder. The 18-year-old left the pitch in the 60th minute to great applause from the stands - with the 25,000 spectators paying tribute to the youngster after a strong performance against Hertha Berlin. "The fans were outstanding today, they pushed us. The fact that they applauded when I was subbed off made me really happy," said the much-celebrated youngster after the match: "Winning the game with the fans makes the feeling ten times better."
Musiala, of course, also played a major part in this result. The Germany international was involved in many of his team's good attacking moves until his substitution and crowned his performance with an almost typical Musiala goal: when he scored in the 49th minute, he moved into the penalty area with great strides. With the ball glued to his foot, he rounded his opponents and finished with aplomb to make it 3-0 - much to the delight of his coach.
Musiala: A very good feeling
"He has incredible quality in attacking one-on-one and has a good finish. That's something you don't find quite so often at youth level these days: that a player has that certain street football mentality - and he has that. My biggest task is to not drive that out of him, he has to maintain that," Julian Nagelsmann said, impressed by his protégé's abilities.
And Musiala didn't just show it against Hertha. In the space of just one week, the highly gifted player notched up four goal involvements in three competitive matches. The attacker followed up an assist in the 3-2 win against 1. FC Köln with a brace in the DFB Cup - and now a goal against the team from the German capital. "It's a very good feeling to build up rhythm again. Scoring goals is just fun. Everything is coming together and it's starting to click. We're playing really good football," Musiala explained.
'Great potential and yet modest'
But there is no need to be afraid of Musiala getting ahead of himself, even after this explosion in the quality of performances. "He is very modest and a very calm and nice guy who can handle it well. He knows he still has a lot of potential to make good on," Nagelsmann revealed. It is particularly important for the Bayern coach that Musiala, as a young player, shows the will to constantly improve. "He also defended superbly today and that is a good step, because we discussed after the game against Köln that he can be even more active in counter-pressing and that can be very valuable. He simply has incredible potential," praised the Bayern coach. Bayern fans can be excited to see what Musiala has to offer this season.
Alongside Musiala, Robert Lewandowski was once again convincing in the match against Hertha:
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