As night fell over a freezing cold Salzburg, everyone from Munich was happy. Not just because FC Bayern almost seamlessly picked up from their form before the short winter break with a 5-0 win over Europa League side FC Red Bull Salzburg, but also, as board member for sport Max Eberl revealed during the half-time break: “The most important thing is that everyone’s stayed fit and healthy.” And that's how it finished too: without any injuries, the team enjoyed the hour-and-a-half bus ride back along the A8 going north-west to Säbener Straße. “We are very motivated for what we want to achieve in 2026,” commented head coach Vincent Kompany.
Missing a number of key players
To begin with, it didn’t look like being such an emphatic victory for Bayern in what’s becoming an almost customary winter friendly in Salzburg. After 14 days of holiday, Christmas and New Year, the German record champions initially struggled to find their rhythm. Clearly, three key players were missing in Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala, while returnee Alphonso Davies and Sacha Boey were absent due to illness and Nicolas Jackson is in action at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, who play Mali in the quarter-finals on Friday. “None of the guys will be out long-term,” assured Kompany. And Eberl added: “It’s a shame that Phonzy is ill today. For Jamal it was just too soon – nevertheless we’re happy that both are back. We’re happy that they’ll now build up their minutes so that we have them in March, April and May, when it counts.”
Kompany still sent out a strong team, with three young talents included in the starting line-up. Wisdom Mike, 17, started on the left wing, 16-year-old Cassiano Kiala partnered Dayot Upamecano in the centre of defence and David Santos, 18, was tasked with locking down the midfield.
That only partially succeeded after the opening exchanges. While Salzburg had significantly less possession, between the 30th and 40th minute they had several presentable opportunities to take the lead, but were denied by either the impressive Jonas Urbig in goal – the 22-year-old also excelled with his positional play – or by Santos Daiber clearing off the line.
Wingers set the tone
It was the wingers who set the tone for Bayern: the lively, two-footed and determined Mike on one side and the cool and lethal Michael Olise on the other. The goal was scored by someone entirely different though: after a good save by Austria goalkeeper Alexander Schlager from Harry Kane’s brazen attempt on the turn, the Salzburg shot-stopper was powerless against Hiroki Ito’s deflected first-time finish from the edge of the area – 1-0 to FC Bayern. A goal that did the Japanese, who was sidelined for so long with a metatarsal fracture, the world of good.
The lead was not undeserved at this point based on possession, but was slightly flattering based on chances. “We had the bit of luck,” admitted Eberl.
In freezing minus eight degrees, both coaches changed their entire teams at the break. Jonathan Tah took over from Kane as captain and Bayern became increasingly dangerous. Again, it was mostly from the flanks that Bayern’s creativity, goal threat and pressure came from. Luis Díaz looked as if his only wish to Father Christmas was to finally be able to play football again in this great team. And Lennart Karl, perhaps, that everything just continues as in a football dream. And both were fulfilled: “Lucho” ran rings around defenders and created chance after chance, and indeed goal after goal. Karl scored twice and set up another. Curiously, for his second goal that made it 4-0, the 168-centimetre Karl headed in from Díaz’s cross.
Chances flow
Bayern were now well on top and superior in every department. Salzburg no longer managed to close the spaces and struggled to engage the Munich men in duels. It was all FCB at the almost sold-out Red Bull Arena with 29,090 spectators. The visitors were now virtually creating chances at a rate of every five minutes as Karl (71’, 87’), academy talent Felipe Chávez (75’) and Tom Bischof (90’+2) from more Díaz magic made it a very handsome scoreline.
After the first 45 minutes the hosts had an 8-7 advantage in shots on goal, but Bayern dominated this statistic at full time with a clear 12-3 lead. Salzburg's best chance came from a direct free kick by Kerim Alajbegovic, which crashed against the crossbar.
The closing stages belonged to the young players who Kompany gave valuable first-team minutes to. “We kept a clean sheet, scored a lot of goals and stood firm, which is important for both the attack and the defence – that’s how to start the new year!” summarised Jonas Urbig afterwards. “It’s important that we build up the momentum again in training to get to the level we were at before the winter break, but I’m very optimistic about that.”
Momentum instead of disruption
It seems the brief winter break hasn’t knocked Bayern out of their stride at all – on the contrary. The German record champions now entertain VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena on Sunday afternoon full of confidence and anticipation. “You’ll see on Sunday that everyone’s firing again and can’t wait,” promised Josip Stanišic. But the most important thing on this Tuesday afternoon in Austria remained: everybody came through unscathed.
“If the squad gets through this phase, we'll be in a very strong position going into the part of the season where everything is decided,” said Kompany ahead of some tricky Bundesliga fixtures against Wolfsburg and away to Köln and RB Leipzig. “If we keep wanting to actively score goals and actively defend as a team in the coming months – like we did in the first half of the season – then a lot is possible this seaso,” stated Eberl.
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