ROME – Stung by a 3-0 Bundesliga humiliation at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich know only a deep run in Europe will salvage their season. And while they head to Lazio for a Champions League last-16, first-leg clash on Feb 14 under a cloud, Jamal Musiala has a reason to smile.
After all, it was at the Olympic Stadium where he made history in 2021. The attacking midfielder scored against Lazio at the same stage of the Champions League to become Bayern’s youngest scorer in the competition.
“It was a really cool game for me. I enjoyed it a lot and managed to score my first Champions League goal. It was a knockout match, certainly one of the most important I’d played in up to that point,” the now 20-year-old said of the 4-1 victory in an interview with the club website.
While the German international is excited at returning to Rome in hope of replicating a similar result, he knows the task is much harder for him and his teammates as this time, the Olympic Stadium will be in full force unlike in 2021, when the game was played in front of empty stands due to the pandemic.
“Champions League matches are always special. I’m very much looking forward to the atmosphere and have heard a lot about it already. We had away games with a very unique atmosphere in the group, too. These are the games you particularly look forward to,” said Musiala.
In addition to dealing with the hostility, Bayern will also have to find a way around the hosts’ defensive solidity if they want to secure a commanding victory that will help alleviate the pressure on coach Thomas Tuchel.
“We need to trust in our processes, get into one-v-one situations, look for one-twos. When the other team are defending deep, there aren’t that many simple solutions, so we have to be creative. It’ll be important for our energy level to be at the maximum,” said Musiala, who has two goals and an assist in five Champions League games this season.
For Tuchel, a poor showing against Maurizio Sarri’s side, who sit eighth in the Serie A table, could push him closer to an unthinkable exit, less than a year after joining the German champions.
Despite winning the double, Niko Kovac never recovered from a last-16 elimination at the hands of Liverpool in 2019, while Julian Nagelsmann’s days were numbered after his Bayern were dumped out by Villarreal at the quarter-final stage in 2022. To compound matters for Tuchel, his side were humbled by an outstanding Leverkusen on Feb 10 to fall five points behind Xabi Alonso’s league leaders.
Bayern chief Jan-Christian Dreesen told reporters on Feb 10 that “nothing had changed regarding the question of the coach’s future”.
However, the fact that Tuchel, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, has failed to put his stamp on the club despite taking over just six months after Alonso took charge at Leverkusen will worry the Bayern hierarchy. REUTERS
