Bayern Munich (Away) 07.08.2025

It was a fairly strong side that Thomas Frank put out, but missing the ACL victim James Maddison and the recovering Dejan Kulusevski, the team lacked a little imagination, with Joao Palhinha coming in for his first Spurs game against the side he is on loan from.  Therefore, even though Pape Matar Sarr was pushing up behind Richarlison, the team had a solid rather than adventurous look.

Three minutes in, Richarlison and brought down Olise on the edge of the D and he got up to take it, but his his shot a foot wide with Guglielmo Vicario rooted to the spot.  Another three minutes on Romero took Kane down from behind 25 yards out and it was taken quickly, finding Goretzka running into the box, but he stretched for the volley and put the ball over, possibly offside before the ball arrived anyway.

Mohammed Kudus did well to trick his way past Stanisic and crossed but nobody was there to find a header.  Kudus then worked hard to get back to deny Diaz a crossing opportunity and gave away a corner, which brought some pushing and shoving to try to distract Vic, but he got a punch to it and it was eventually cleared, although when it came back in with a diagonal ball from the left by Olise to Harry Kane, he took the ball down and put it into Vicario’s bottom left corner from 12 yards out.  The fact that he was offside passed the linesman by and the goal was allowed to stand..

14th minute and Joao Palhinha brought down Stanisic in the box as the Bayern player broke in behind him and a penalty was awarded.  Kane stepped up to take it, but the net rippling that might have been expected failed to happen, as his standing left foot went from under him and he skied the spot-kick high into the crowd !  Was it on purpose ?  Knowing his love for goals, you wouldn’t expect so.

Spurs got their first shot on target on 16 minutes, when Kudus failed to control a ball forward and as it dropped, Richi ran onto it and struck it first time, from outside the area but straight at Neuer.  Spurs then worked the ball on the left side and Spence broke into the box, looking as though Laimer made contact with him, but nothing was given.  The same happened at the other end when Diaz shot well wide, but went down afterwards unable to fool the referee.

Goretzka burst onto a deflected pass from Diaz and took it head high with a raised boot, but because Rodrigo Bentancur stood off him, he was allowed to continue and he hit a low drive straight at the Spurs keeper.  Another Bayern corner was cleared and as Kudus looked to break just outside the Spurs box, Laimer cynically took him down, with the referee initially going to his pocket, but then deciding not to book him.  Just after the half hour, Bentancur put a firm pass down the middle to Richarlison, who took it well with one touch to get away from Tah and hit a curling left foot shot that Neuer took low down by the far post.  Goretzka had another shot following Coman’s good run on the right that was pulled back to the edge of the area, but the midfielder skied his effort over the top and it was an action replay two minutes later as Coman had a lot of time to find Goretzka again and he dragged his shot wide of Vicario’s right hand post.  In between, Brennan Johnson had played a pass for Pape Matar Sarr to run onto in the area and Kimmich gave him a nudge that stopped him being able to reach the ball.

Dodgy refereeing in pre-season is nothing new and the ref obviously wanted to please the home crowd, giving a free kick against Romero for “holding” on Kane when the former Spurs striker wasn’t going to reach the ball anyway.  Cristian got booked for dissent when telling the ref what he thought of the decision – quite ridiculous considering Laimer’s early foul.  It gave Kane another free shot at goal, but like most of his free-kicks he took for us, hit the wall.  The second phase saw Micky van de Ven nudged the ball away from Coman and then a ball across goal did find Kane at the far post, where he shot into the ground and it went wide with Coman unable to turn it in at the far post.

A half-time change brought Lucas Bergvall on for Joao Palhinha, moving into the forward midfield role, as Pape dropped back into the defensive two with Bentancur.  Spurs looked more ambitious going forward and Richarlison almost found Kudus on the right inside the box, but it was cut out by Tah and then the Brazilian nutmegged Upamechano but the ball was intercepted and cleared.

Bayern then had two great chances, with Kane’s early ball into the six yard box from the right picked out Olise and he scopped the ball over the bar  from close range, then Diaz created space to play the ball across goal with no Bayern player reading his cross.  Vicario did well to punch away a curling effort by Olise, but breaking from the corner, Kudus’ final ball was too long for two white shirts at the far post.  Bayern cut through SPurs in the 57th minute and another pull back, this time from the left, produced a chance for Laimer that he spooned too high. 

When Laimer robbed Spence on the Bayern right, he knocked it on to Coman, who came inside to curl the ball with his left foot out of Vicario’s reach a  he dived to his right.  That made it 2-0 on the hour.

Vic did better when Laimer won the ball before Romero clattered into him on the slide, with Coman dinking a ball into the box to Kane, just right of the near post six yards out and when he tried to slip it in at the near post, the Spurs keeper stuck out his left leg to block the ball.  It spun into the air, but Diaz could only head the ball wide. 

Bayern then changed nine of their players, with only Diaz and Neuer staying on.  Spurs stepped up the pace and Porro delivered a sine cross from the right to pick out Richi’s run, but the striker got his head all wrong, putting it straight in front of him as he came in from the centre left of the box instead of turning it on target.  Vic was in action again on 73 minutes as he saved from Bischoff, but the ball ran oput in front of goal, with Ben Davies getting in ahead of Boey who looked like he would score.  Mohammed Kudus was a lone white shirt up front and was muscled off the ball and when Bayern moved forward, Daiber played the ball to his right to Karl just outside the area and he wrapped his left foot around the ball to send it past the same dive of Vicario as the second goal. 

After the ball was unable to be worked in the right corner of the Spurs box, it went out to Kusi-Asare and he sent a first-time curler with his right foot past Vicario’s dive to his left.  It was too high for Vic to reach and it was 4-0 with ten minutes left. 

Spurs had a couple of good moves, with Odobert cutting in from the left but hitting the back of Ben Davies with his shot and then a later corner was played to the far post, where Romero had made an intelligent run but his header back into the middle was cleared away.  Micky did the same from another corner and then a deep cross to the left saw Mathys Tell come in to volley towards the near post where Neuer had to kick the ball away.

It was a humbling night for Spurs, who were outclassed by a slick Bayern side who are established with a few additions, whereas we are are currently going through a rebuild under a new manager.  It is a little worrying with Paris Saint Germain up next in the European Super Cup but having been out of the Champions League for a couple of years, this is the level of team that Spurs have to be at.  Some players looked off the pace, with some getting a little rest, but the travelling around Asia and back and then on to Germany could have taken its toll.