The FC Bayern World Squad have celebrated a successful dress rehearsal for the grand finale at the Allianz Arena. Three days before the showpiece match against the German record champions' U19s which will take place after the first-team presentation, Klaus Augenthaler and Christopher Loch's team defeated the SpVgg Unterhaching U19s 5-1 on Wednesday (2-0) and thus also registered their first win in this year's season of global talent scouting.
Confidence boost for Saturday
In front of 150 spectators at the FC Bayern Campus, the World Squad dominated the match from the beginning, were tight at the back and showed a willingness to get forward. Muslim Umar deservedly put the home team ahead in the 22nd minute, Tarik Scott (24') doubled the lead shortly afterwards. After the break, Umar (55') and Scott (62') each added a second, doubling the score again. The visitors were able to pull one back (69') before Achiraf Djibril (79') wrapped things up with a fifth. Coach Augenthaler was very positive after the match: "In view of the big game on the Allianz Arena pitch on Saturday, it was hugely important that we won 5-1 today and that the boys will go into the game with more confidence."
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How the game went
The FCB talents were without the injured Diego Silva de Abreu and Géronimo Vidal, who pulled out before the start of the match, but they coped well with the loss. Displaying a completely different body language than in the test at Wolfsburg last Saturday, the young talents put the opponents from the south of Munich under pressure early on with some high pressing. The visitors had the first good chance of the game, but keeper Jakov Borna Žaja was able to block the shot. After that, it was all World Squad, who were initially too careless with their own chances, before Umar (22') and Scott (24') scored to give them the deserved lead.
In the second half, the home side built on the strong performance of the first 45 minutes: After a short period of pressure from Unterhaching, the World Squad took control of the game again. Almost like a mirror image of the first half, it was Umar who once more put the ball in the back of the net in the 55th minute for the next Bayern goal. After some terrific work and a subsequent assist from Treasure Odunze, Scott (62') added his second goal of the day. After a minor setback around 20 minutes from time, when Unterhaching scored from a free-kick in the 69th minute to make it 4-1, the World Squad found the right response: substitute Djibril fired home from around 16 metres to restore the gap to four goals.
What the coaches said
Klaus Augenthaler: "The boys did a very good job of implementing the content we gave them in the few training sessions we had. Unterhaching, just like Wolfsburg, are first-class opponents and it was good that they got to experience a sense of achievement. In view of the big game on Saturday on the Allianz Arena pitch, it was hugely important that we won 5-1 today and the boys will go into the game with more confidence."
Christopher Loch: "It's terrific we've now won the first game with this year's World Squad and especially that the boys experienced a positive sense of achievement. The team took their chances and were rewarded for their effort and investment in the game. In addition, it was great to see the boys were able to implement the content we had worked on in training and in the video analysis after the defeat in Wolfsburg right away in this game. All in all, a successful conclusion before the showpiece match at the Allianz Arena against our U19s."
FC Bayern World Squad documentary in the autumn
Fans will once again be able to relive the youth players' entire journey from training to the selection process to playing against FC Bayern's young talents as an exclusive eight-part series. The documentary will be broadcast in the autumn on our YouTube channel as well as on the FC Bayern home page and selected international media.
Read here how Saturday's friendly at Wolfsburg went:
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