Bastian Schweinsteiger was Bayern’s hero in Basel on Tuesday night, netting a penalty and a last-minute winner as Louis van Gaal’s men came from behind to make it two Champions League wins out of two with a gritty 2-1 victory over the Swiss champions.
The 37,500 full house at St Jakob Park saw the Germans utterly dominate the early exchanges but fail to put away any of their chances, and the game took on an entirely different complexion after Alexander Frei opened the scoring completely against the run of play. The initiative passed to Basel for a long spell after that, but Schweinsteiger levelled from the spot ten minutes after the restart when Thomas Müller was hacked down in the box, and Bayern were rewarded for a tenacious second-half display with Schweinsteiger’s crucial winner a minute from time.
The result, combined with AS Roma’s 2-1 win over CFR Cluj, leaves Munich comfortably in the Group E driving seat on maximum points from two matches, with the Romanians and the Italians both on three points and Swiss representatives Basel yet to get off the mark.
Buoyed by the impressive away success, Bayern will now be in good heart for their next Bundesliga fixture, the challenging trip to second-placed Borussia Dortmund on Sunday. Munich return to the European stage on 19 October at home to Cluj.
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