Thomas Tuchel was the pride of Bavaria after his first match at the helm of Bayern Munich resulted in a superb 4-2 Der Klassiker win over Bundesliga title rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The stakes were high ahead of kickoff at the Allianz Arena, with Tuchel charged with the task of beating Dortmund after replacing Julian Nagelsmann last week.
Munich started life under Thomas Tuchel with a 4-2 victory over his old club Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena that saw them replace the visitors at the top of the Bundesliga table.
Tuchel, a former Dortmund boss, was given a helping hand early on, as an error by Dortmund ‘keeper Gregor Kobel gifted Bayern the lead before two quickfire finishes from captain Thomas Muller put them 3-0 up at halftime.
Eight days on from sacking Julian Nagelsmann and bringing Tuchel in, Bayern raced into a three-goal lead in their first match under the former Chelsea boss, with the opener coming via a bizarre 13th-minute own goal by the Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel. Dayot Upamecano sent the ball forward from inside his half and the outrushing Kobel attempted to kick it away but it skimmed off his shin and went in.
Kingsley Coman extended the hosts’ advantage after the restart, and despite late consolation goals from Emre Can and Donyell Malen, there was to be no Dortmund fightback, as Bayern claimed a two-point lead in the title race.
Speaking after the match, Thomas Tuchel said: “It was a very good first step, although for me it was too open and frantic. We wanted to have more dominance in the opposition half. We started very nervously in the first half. Across the game as a whole, we gave the ball away too much, which made the game very hard work. The desire to work without the ball was very high. There are lots of positives but also room for improvement. Everyone was aware of what was riding on in the match. The desire to withstand and suffer when something goes wrong was 100 percent there – that’s the most important thing. Overall it was a very good start with a win. That will give us confidence and desire to improve.”
The Captain, Thomas Muller, thanks to his brace for Bayern as well gave his remarks: “We had a lot of chances. Overall there was a lot of room for improvement, though. You saw the importance of the match. Being 3-0 up at the break gives you a good feeling. We should’ve scored three or four more goals. We were extremely hard-working but made life hard for ourselves in possession. But at the end of the day, it’s the scoreline that counts. We didn’t do everything perfectly, but we had the determination and the strength in the tackle. The coach gave us a lot of assurance. We’re happy but still have much work ahead of us.”
Tuchel has developed a reputation for getting his message across quickly to a new set of players with positive results swiftly following. He looks forward to extending Bayern’s successive League wins to eleven. However, even by his high standards, this win is a key marker laid down, for what he will expect in the remainder of the 2022/23 season.
