Three minutes of stoppage time had already elapsed and some of the crowd couldn’t bear to watch amidst the tension. Once again, the ball came to Michael Olise and once again, the winger swung a cross in right in front of the visitors' goal with his trademark accuracy. The ball dropped perfectly between two Celtic defenders and onto the head of Leon Goretzka, who had stolen crucial space away from his markers. But for the second time on this cold and late evening in Munich, the 30-year-old met his match in Kasper Schmeichel. Shortly after the second half’s resumption, the Celtic goalkeeper had made himself big to save a Goretzka shot with his body in a one-on-one scenario. Schmeichel then made a superb reflex save with his left hand to keep out Goretzka’s powerful header from six yards out. But he was not in the clear just yet.
Instead, the ball trickled towards the far post. Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers wanted nothing more than to clear the ball as far from the goal as possible – ideally out of the stadium and towards the Fröttmaning S-Bahn station. But substitute Alphonso Davies wouldn’t let that happen, closing down the attempted clearance and forcing it over the goal line with incredible determination to make it 1-1. Just a matter of moments later and it was all over. After their "0-0 win" over Leverkusen – as TV pundit Lothar Matthäus had described it – Bayern followed suit with a 1-1 'win' over Celtic just days later. Following the 2-1 victory in the first leg in Glasgow, the draw was enough to see FCB through to the last 16 of the Champions League.
“Of course, we want to beat our opponents by as large a margin as possible, but if that doesn’t work, then you have to work hard for the results,” said a relieved Vincent Kompany. “That’s exactly what we’ve done, and in the end, what counts is that we’ve gone through.”
In their third game in seven days and after a labour-intensive defensive performance in the top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash in Leverkusen (0-0), Bayern fell back into their usual dominance early on in the Champions League. The lion’s share of possession, real composure, and knocking the ball round vivaciously in the visitors’ half all characterised the early stage of the game, as Celtic struggled to gain footing in front of the passionate home crowd inside the Allianz Arena. However, for all their dominance, Bayern were lacking any true gilt-edged goalscoring opportunities.
Increasingly bold against Bayern’s press
“We didn’t do that well in the first half,” said Kompany. “That improved in the second,” added the head coach. Just as Leverkusen did at the weekend, Celtic soon became ever braver in the face of Bayern’s suffocating press. After a quarter of an hour, it was the Scots who were suddenly hunting a surprising lead. First, Nicolas Kühn squeezed a shot past a beaten Manuel Neuer, which Raphaël Guerreiro cleared off the line in aid of his goalkeeper (16’). Mere seconds later, first-leg goalscorer Daizen Maeda failed to latch onto a Kühn pass by a whisker (17’), before the Japanese forward’s subsequent curling effort missed the Bayern goal again (18’).
Bayern’s defence did not look as watertight as it did against Leverkusen: “We knew they would come here with high intensity, and we know we had to match that intensity, which we did,” said Alphonso Davies.
The Munich men endeavoured to fight back and there were hearts in Celtic mouths in two instances before the break. First, Joshua Kimmich hit a good effort narrowly wide (38’) before Harry Kane hit the crossbar from the penalty spot, after being teed up by Josip Stanišić down the right. But the teams went into the break with nothing to separate them.
(Almost) no way through
“Harry Kane hit the crossbar, but we also had chances ourselves,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers after the game. “We had to defend even more in the second half - we knew that would be the case – but we deserved to take the lead.” That was because while Bayern continued to dictate the tempo of the game, they were once again finding it difficult to break down the visitors’ strong defence. They only managed to do so in the second half, when Goretzka suddenly found himself in a one-on-one against Schmeichel almost immediately after the restart. But the visitors’ keeper remained victorious (47’).
“It’s been extremely physically demanding over the last few days, especially with the travelling. And these are exactly the moments - when not everything goes your way, but you still manage to deliver results - that help you to keep pushing on in a season like this. That’s all we were focussing on,” said Goretzka. Before that was secure, however, there were still some nerves surrounding reaching the round of 16, or at least doing so without having to go to extra time in the freezing cold. To make matters worse, FCB had several unsuccessful attempts at clearing the ball out from the defence before Kühn had the Bayern goal at his mercy. Finding himself alone in front of Neuer, the former Bayern reserve player gave the custodian no chance, scoring to give Celtic a much-celebrated 1-0 lead. “We played against a really top team. You could see that today,” commented Goretzka.
However, FCB were revitalised as a result of the goal’s concession, though Goretzka and Leroy Sané initially missed the opportunities to level the score by the smallest of margins (74’, 75’). Just as it seemed to be heading to extra time against the Scottish champions, Olise lifted the ball high into the penalty area one last time. The rest is history, perseverance, passion – and maybe just a sprinkling of good fortune. Davies broke Celtic hearts in stoppage time with his goal to bring the scores back level to 1-1, which was enough to see FCB through on aggregate. “We didn’t show our complete dominance, but what matters in the end is that we’ve gone through to the round of 16,” said captain Neuer. “Mentally speaking too, that was a strong performance, and we can be proud of how much commitment we showed."
'All credit to Phonzy'
“The biggest compliment goes to Phonzy (Alphonso Davies), who doesn’t switch off. He keeps going and is determined to make things happen,” said a delighted Goretzka. “Of course I’m also very grateful to him, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t be in such a good position having not scored the header. So, it’s half an assist and I probably owe him a little something.”
After the 21st home consecutive victory and the fourth home win in the Champions League under Kompany, the draw on Friday will determine whether FCB will face Bayer Leverkusen or Atlético Madrid in the round of 16. “We’re looking forward to the next round,” said the boss. “No matter who our next opponent is, we’ll be wanting to progress.” And if it takes another 94th-minute winner and a whole lot more drama, so be it."
Watch the free highlighs of the second leg:
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