I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

"A smokescreen!"

"It turned out to be a smokescreen!"

When the first leg between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich kicked off, no one had expected Chen Zhong’s appearance to be just a smokescreen.

Alonso did not start Chen Zhong; all that pre-match talk was nothing more than throwing out a smokescreen.

If this away match had been won, then this move from Alonso would have become a much-discussed handbook of pre-match mind games among fans, but unfortunately, Alonso lost, and Real Madrid, facing Bayern Munich, did not produce the performance he had been hoping for.

Kompany and Alonso carried on the grudge from their Bundesliga days, and Alonso handed Kompany a win.

This might not be the most beautiful match Bayern Munich have played since Kompany took charge, but it was certainly the most satisfying and the most important victory—despite this being only the "first half".

Kompany’s Bayern Munich went to Real Madrid’s home ground and won 3–0, with the Bundesliga leaders taking an absolutely commanding lead in the Champions League round of 16.

Once again outplaying Alonso on the tactical level, Kompany still remained low-key and humble: "This is not ’my victory’. It’s our victory. I’m part of it, yes, but this was our most important match of the season so far."

With a 3–0 away win, Bayern Munich already have one foot in the Champions League quarterfinals.

The most commendable figure in this match was probably Harry Kane, who seized his chance early on.

Kompany extended the winning streak from their last meeting. In fact, in the first three clashes last season, every match between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen had been tightly contested: both league meetings ended in draws, and in the German Cup round of 16, Bayer Leverkusen won 1–0 away after playing 11 vs 10 for a long period.

Because Neuer was sent off as early as the 17th minute, and because Bayern Munich, despite being a man down early, still dominated the play for long spells, not many people felt that Alonso had really "beaten" Kompany in that cup tie.

But whatever the case, since Alonso took over Real Madrid, this time it was Kompany who scored a comprehensive victory.

Perhaps most people’s memories were still stuck on the impression of their last encounter, or perhaps it was because in the past three years Bayern Munich had failed to win any of their six meetings with Alonso’s teams; even though they stressed their advantage in Champions League knockout experience before the game, Bayern Munich were not favored by the outside world.

Maybe even Alonso himself overtrusted his past success, especially being misled by how that last meeting had looked. Not only did he again send out a starting XI without a traditional center forward, he was also no longer as cautious as he had been in the two away trips to the Allianz Arena in the first half of the season.

Right from the start, Real Madrid immediately launched proactive attacks and high pressing, with no intention of hiding anything. Barely three minutes in, Mbappe drove aggressively down the left half-space but was screened and dispossessed by Kim Min-jae, who then played the ball back to Neuer. As Mbappe lost his balance, he landed directly on Kim’s left ankle, injuring the latter’s left knee and bringing play to a halt for more than two minutes, forcing Dier and Hiroki Ito to warm up at once.

Kane opened the scoring after just nine minutes.

But after this brief incident, not only was Kim Min-jae able to continue, Bayern Munich also were not overwhelmed by Real Madrid’s early momentum; instead they immediately created the first scare in front of goal via a Free Kick from Kimmich, and shortly afterwards Olise assisted Kane’s header for the opener.

It took only nine minutes.

As Kane said afterwards, the key to the win was taking their chances well: "The first goal was a bit unexpected, it wasn’t a clear-cut chance, but we took it, and I felt from there we gradually grew into the game."

On the one hand they capitalized on their own chances, on the other they patiently waited for the opponents to make mistakes. In fact, across the two legs against Celtic, especially the first leg away from home, Bayern Munich had already shown an "unusual level of patience". That was largely a lesson learned from their 0–3 away thrashing by Feyenoord—or, put differently, they had been scared straight by that defeat.

So even when they clearly had the ability to keep pummeling their opponents, Bayern Munich did not rush things, and in the end used two opportunities that didn’t even look that obvious to go two goals up.

Although back then, due to fitness issues and a lack of confidence, their overall display was far from ideal, and in the second leg they almost got dragged into extra time, it was still clear that both Kompany and his team had significantly changed their approach to matches—especially in Champions League knockouts—gradually shifting from an overly self-centered idealism towards pragmatism.

Now, up against a much more familiar opponent in Real Madrid than Celtic, Bayern Munich, while maintaining that patience, also had a much more comprehensive plan for limiting their opponents—particularly with Alonso basically sticking to the same game blueprint from their last encounter.

Back from a one-game suspension, Kimmich did an excellent job of orchestrating the midfield; Kane not only scored but, as always, actively dropped deep to organize and help in Defense, while Olise and Goretzka also kept up the strong form they had shown in recent weeks.

In almost every individual matchup, Bayern Munich held their own; their duel success rate being a full 10% higher than their opponents was clear proof of that (their aerial duel success rate was as high as 58%).

Even though Real Madrid kept up their high pressing, apart from shortly after conceding, when they forced Upamecano into a misplaced back-pass that allowed Vinicius a one-on-one Shooting chance against Neuer, they never again managed to seriously threaten the home side’s goal.