Four weeks after suffering a muscular injury against Freiburg, Dayot Upamecano returned to Bayern’s starting XI for Der Klassiker away at Borussia Dortmund – and it took the Frenchman only four minutes to mark his comeback with the opening goal at a corner.
Coach Thomas Tuchel had actually been unsure ahead of the game whether Upamecano would even be fit enough to feature. Following discussions with the medical department, they skipped over a few steps towards his return due to injury concerns in defence, according to Tuchel when speaking ahead of kick-off. The 50-year-old had also confirmed that the defender would not be able to play the full 90 minutes. That’s perhaps why Upamecano tried his best to make his mark and ensure the game was settled so early.
Upamecano also helps for second goal
The game was only nine minutes old when the 25-year-old showed that he was completely up to speed, this time in his own penalty area. He intercepted an attempted through ball from Niclas Füllkrug to Marco Reus and then had the vision to set Bayern away on a counter. Just 15 seconds and a couple of touches later, Harry Kane had the ball in the net for 2-0.
At the time of his predetermined substitution in the 59th minute, it was still 2-0 and the France international had defended everything thrown his way to help take the sting out of a Dortmund team that had scored in each of their last 29 Bundesliga fixtures since a 2-0 loss in Wolfsburg in November 2022.
Praise from Tuchel
“Upa did a great job, huge credit,” Tuchel said in praise after the game. The coach will hope that his centre-back can soon keep Bayern’s defence solid for the full 90 minutes again. Upamecano demonstrated clearly in a top fixture against Dortmund just how important he is for the team – at both ends of the pitch.
Here’s more facts on the 4-0 win in Dortmund:
Topics of this article