MUNICH — There was a horrible sense of familiarity about Chelsea’s defeat to Bayern Munich.
By the 70th minute, the Bayern fans were greeting each pass with “Olé”; the victory celebrations had started. For all their efforts, endeavor and eagerness in Munich, Chelsea’s defense crumbled when it needed to be at its resolute best, and Harry Kane and his Bayern teammates profited to win 3-1.
For so much of this, it felt like the game was being played at its stretched limit. The match was taut; both teams were playing with incredibly high lines, parking risk and reward right on the precipice of the contest. With co-controlling owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly both in the stadium tonight, Chelsea started so well. They pressed Bayern with a relentlessness similar to what we saw in the FIFA Club World Cup win over Paris Saint-Germain, with Malo Gusto enjoying freedom on the right wing.
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Everything was going well until it stopped going to plan. And Kane and the outstanding Michael Olise were there to profit and unpick Chelsea’s optimism to give them a nasty welcome back to the UEFA Champions League after a two-season hiatus.
Chelsea’s defensive errors let them down. While they pressed with great urgency up front, each of Bayern’s three goals can be blamed on the Chelsea defense. For Bayern’s first, they switched off from a drop ball in the middle of the park as Joshua Kimmich found Olise. Olise twisted and turned and fired a ball across the box. Three Chelsea defenders missed and it deflected off the unfortunate Trevoh Chalobah for an own goal.
For the second, Olise found Kane in acres of space, and he turned Moisés Caicedo, who promptly floored him in the box. Kane vs. Robert Sánchez from the spot? 2-0 Bayern. Chelsea pulled one back from a wonderful end-to-end move, which started and finished with Cole Palmer after a one-two with Gusto.
But Chelsea failed to build on this. They grew frustrated, as manager Enzo Maresca became ever more exasperated on the sideline and posed little threat in the second half. Instead, it was Bayern who pulled the strings as Maresca’s changes were ineffective. Moments after Sánchez pulled off a stunning save from Olise, Kane doubled his tally with Bayern’s third in the 63rd minute after Gusto gave the ball away near his own box, Kane ran on to the loose ball and slid it home.
With 10 goals in six games this season, his scoring record is easy to take for granted. But whenever you watch him live, or see the great statistics, it hammers home how he is a true phenomenon.
Harry Kane’s brace allowed Bayern to begin their Champions League campaign with a convincing 3-1 win over Chelsea. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Each of the goals was preventable, as Bayern kept finding space between stand-in defensive midfielder Reece James and the defensive line, just waiting patiently to hammer home the three match-ending blows.
Chelsea came into this with such optimism. They are reigning world champions after all. But there were similar errors to the ones we saw Brentford trigger in Saturday’s draw, where Chelsea were hit on the counterattack for Brentford’s first, and then missed a ball at the far post for Brentford’s late equalizer.
It was all too easy, and again, Chelsea’s underbelly was far too weak. But there is hope. Wesley Fofana’s path back to full fitness will help, as will the return of Benoît Badiashile, and Jorrel Hato is an incredibly promising talent who will be a wonderful asset once he finds his feet. James needs to be back at home at right back rather than this defensive midfield experiment.
And there were some positives to look at, too. For the most part, Gusto was outstanding in attack on the right wing, while Palmer looked back to his best. Palmer’s goal was outstanding, a wonderful first-time finish into the top left corner, while he had a glorious second ruled out for offside. But still, you feel this is a team adjusting to the new faces and finding its feet. It doesn’t have long to do that, and this was a chastening lesson from Bayern.
For Bayern, this felt like business as usual. A rare spell of calm amid a bizarrely turbulent start to the season. On one hand, everything is as it usually is: Bayern have four wins in four matches and walloped Hamburg 5-0 at the weekend. But this is all against a backdrop of a tricky summer where they missed out on transfer targets and have long-term injuries to Alphonso Davies, Jamal Musiala and Hiroki Itō.
Over the summer, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman, João Palhinha and Mathys Tel all left the Allianz Arena. Bayern signed Luis Díaz, Jonathan Tah and Tom Bischof but missed out on targets Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade.
They needed the last-gasp loan signing of Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea to bolster their attack on transfer deadline day. But all was not well, as there was public sniping behind the scenes from some of the grand old Bayern sages to the crew currently running the club, and it was all a little tense. Meanwhile, the players ploughed on, though Kane admitted it was a small squad, and Kimmich described the depth as “thin.”
We saw some of that tested in Munich on Wednesday with Josip Stanisic deployed at left back again after Raphaël Guerreiro joined the injury list at the weekend. The squad was further stretched with Tah off at halftime, before Stanisic got injured in the early part of the second half. But still, they barely broke stride.
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If you listened to Bayern legend and supervisory board member Uli Hoeneß’s comments at the DFL’s general assembly in Berlin a couple of weeks ago, you would have pictured this iteration of Bayern Munich as Champions League underdogs. “Nobody is betting on us,” he said, comparing Bayern’s chances to Hoffenheim’s in the Bundesliga. But back in reality, we saw enough about Bayern tonight to double down on their Champions League credentials.
They must be a nightmare to play against. They switch the ball diagonally through the metronomic Kimmich with ease, and then they have Díaz and Olise running at opposition defenders with deadly enthusiasm.
Olise is the darling of the Allianz Arena. The crowd here loves him, chanting “OL-I-SE” whenever he starts his mazy runs, and then up front is the ageless Kane. His engine is unrelenting, and his finishing is as ruthless as ever. The question is, having seen Bayern slip out of the Champions League this past season to Internazionale when they suffered an injury crisis, can they cope with something similar this year while contesting on three fronts? It’ll be down to Vincent Kompany’s managerial juggling skills to determine that.
But tonight, such thoughts of the future can wait. For Chelsea, they simply have to iron out these defensive issues. And for Bayern, well, it’s a case of keeping on doing what they do best: winning. But amid the smiles, you can imagine they’ll be keeping one hand behind their back with their fingers crossed that everyone stays fit.