Aston Villa End Bayern Munich’s Historic 41 Game Champions League Run

It has finally happened. For the first time since Sep. 26, 2017, Bayern Munich has lost a Champions League group stage match. On Wednesday, Bayern Munich was defeated 1-0 by Premier League side Aston Villa, thanks to a goal by Jhon Duran.

The parallel between Bayern’s defeat on Wednesday and their defeat in 2017? Unai Emery. Emery managed Paris Saint-Germain seven years ago, guiding the club to a 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich. On Wednesday, Emery was in charge of Aston Villa as he finally got Bayern to stumble after 41 games without a defeat in the group stage of the Champions League.

There is something fitting then that it was Emery, the last manager to beat Bayern to finally lead a club to end the Rekordmeister’s unbelievable run. But perhaps the new Bayern Munich head coach, Vincent Kompany, should have seen this coming?

After all, Emery was also in charge of a Villarreal side that shocked Bayern Munich in the 2021/22 Champions League quarterfinals. After winning the home leg 1-0, Bayern only managed a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena.

What is Emery’s secret against Bayern? Against teams like that, it's very important to be strong,” Emery said to English television station TNT after the game. “Martínez did an amazing job with amazing saves.”

MORE FOR YOU
One Of The Best TV Shows Ever Made Lands On Netflix Today
Who Won The VP Debate Last Night? Here’s What Snap Polls And Betting Markets Say.
New Critical Password Warning—86% Of All Router Users Need To Act Now

Emery made it sound simple. All you must do is defend well and rely on a world-class goalkeeper like Emiliano Martinez. Martinez denied Serge Gnabry point blank and then kept out a Harry Kane header with a fantastic save in the dying moments of the game.

Going the other way, Aston Villa kept frustrating Bayern with countless counter-attacks. In fact, Bayern was somewhat lucky that Dayot Upamecano wasn’t sent off in the first half after bringing down Villa striker Ollie Watkins for a second time. Not only was it a second foul, but Watkins would also have been through on goal.

Then, in the second half, Duran finally managed to take the lead after a counter-attack. The Colombian forward caught Manuel Neuer outside of his goal on a counter. It is a goal the former Germany no.1 would like to have back.

“Everyone knows that I do that come off his line every game,” Neuer said to DAZN after the game. “The striker did well. I could've been two meters behind, but that's our game. I don't know if the coach will ask for something different after this goal. Calculated risk? That's our game.”

While Neuer will have to take the blame for that goal, the result wasn’t his fault entirely. Although Bayern finished the game with 70% possession, it never felt like the Munich club was in complete control when passing the ball around in the final third.

Overall, Aston Villa did a great job limiting Bayern to just two high-scoring opportunities. Without Jamal Musiala on the pitch in the first half, Aston Villa had an easy time winning position and creating fast turnovers. That improved slightly in the second half when Musiala came on for Kingsley Coman.

“In the first half, we had control for 15 or 20 minutes without being able to push them back much,” Bayern Munich director of sport Max Eberl said after the game. “We weren't 100% active off the ball today. We did better in the second half without creating great scoring chances.”

What are the lessons from this game, then? “You mustn't lose the game,” Eberl said. “We must learn from it because we can't win at this level without giving 100%. We didn't manage to take advantage of our few chances.”

Head coach Kompany agrees. “We gave away a moment, and in that moment, Villa scored a goal,” Kompany said. “I'm convinced that we're a team that will score goals more often than not. But today, that's the story of the game.”

After a perfect start in the Bundesliga and a historic 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb, Bayern has now drawn Leverkusen at home and lost to Aston Villa in the Champions League. In other words, the first two tests of the season have resulted in one draw and one defeat.

“Leverkusen and Villa are two teams that I rate extremely highly,” Kompany said when asked about the results. “We conceded very few chances against them. What we usually do so well is scoring goals, for some reason or the other—it's been against the bar, on the post, a near miss.”

Is Kompany worried those two results could become a new trend? “With the team we have, I'd never see this as a trend,” Kompany said. “It's just what happened to us this week.

It certainly isn’t a trend yet, but things can go from great to bad quickly at FC Hollywood. Up next in the Bundesliga is Eintracht Frankfurt, a side that smashed Bayern 5-1 in Frankfurt last season.