5 reasons why a Liverpool-Bayern Munich 0-0 draw was so much better than its score

While it can be difficult to find positives from a 0-0 draw, not all are the same. The match between Bayern Munich and Liverpool, though goalless, was hardly boring. It was a frantic contest with stellar displays from many players who weren’t forwards.

I enjoyed it, and there a few particular events and individuals who I thought were incredible:

In comparison to their lean, speedy, tricky opponents in Sadio Mane, Mo Salah, and Roberto Firmino, the Bayern players like Joshua Kimmich, Niklas Süle, Mats Hummels, and Javi Martinez all look like they spend most of their time in the woods chopping trees and dragging logs back to their cabins with their hands. Kimmich is the shortest of the group at 5’9, but he’s wide and stocky. Meanwhile, Süle is 6’5 and weighs over 200 pounds, Hummels is 6’3 and 198, and Martinez is 6’3 and 190.

The Liverpool trio, and the rest of their small-but-agile players, put the advantages of their smaller size on display with deceitful turns in tight spaces, twisting and turning their defenders inside out. It looked only a matter of time before the Liverpool attackers would bamboozle their way to a few goals.

But the Beefy Bayern Boys stood strong. What they lacked in agility and fleet-footedness, they made up with timing, intelligence, persistence, and power. Rather than getting into foot races with their opponents, they often covered wonderfully for one another when one was beaten. If Mane got past Kimmich, Süle was there to sweep the ball away. When Süle was beaten, Kimmich and Hummels closed down the space. And Hummels stood his ground often by muscling away attackers when they tried to run beyond him. When all else failed, they — especially Süle — threw their bodies in the way, trusting they were wide and tall enough to block any space for a shot. And it worked.

The game was a display of opposing definitions of athleticism, and while Liverpool’s build seemed like it should dominate a fast-paced game, the Beefy Bayern Boys combined their physicality with intelligence to counter their opponents perfectly.

Keita has been looking more comfortable and confident in midfield after a rough start to his Anfield career. Wijnaldum is well known as a critical quality to this Liverpool team, even if he’s still a bit underrated. They’re two different types of players, but something I love about both is their dribbling ability and how it unnerves defenders.

In the second minute of the game, Alisson drove the ball to Wijnaldum in the center of the field, right under the halfway line, to bypass the Bayern press. Wijnaldum controlled it and turned upfield, and immediately Martinez was by his side, grabbing and trying to take the ball. Wijnaldum ran to the right, and when Martinez followed, he chopped the ball back behind himself, turning to go left as his defender tried to regain his balance. Martinez was clearly beaten and had no choice but to foul Wijnaldum.

In the first half when Keita was at his best, he was taking players on, even beating a few of them with step-overs.

One of the earliest lessons that midfielders learn is to keep things simple. Losing the ball in the center of the field by trying to do too much is an almost unforgivable sin. But Wijnaldum and Keita at their best are examples of why the ability to dribble in midfield is a terror to defenders. When they beat a defender one-on-one or break pressure by turning away a defender, it creates a numerical and space advantage that allows their teammates to concentrate on making runs behind the defensive line. So many of Liverpool’s chances and best attacks came from one of those two turning or dribbling past a defender and forcing the defensive line to panic and retreat.

I love Kimmich. He is such an intelligent and brave player. There were two instances for me when he showed just how incredible he is defensively.

In the 22nd minute, Mane dropped deep in the middle of the field to receive a high pass from Salah. Süle beat Mane to the ball and headed it away. Unfortunately for Süle, the ball fell to Keita just a few yards away and the Liverpool midfielder started bringing the ball forward. This meant that Süle’s position was compromised. Mane was running into the space, down the middle, that Süle had vacated. There was a small window of time when Keita could have played in Mane, but he hesitated and soon Kimmich and Hummels had squeezed in from opposite sides of Mane to cut off the pass.

So instead, Keita waited until Andrew Robertson made a run down the left side. Right before Keita passed the ball into space for Robertson, Kimmich — who was running with his body turned sideways, and with his back facing Robertson — turned his hips to square up with Keita. When Keita played the ball to Robertson, all Kimmich had to do was slide sideways to close him down. And as soon as Robertson took his first touch on the ball, Kimmich jumped into his path and poked the ball away.

Then there was the tackle that Kimmich made on Mane while playing on a yellow card a few minutes later. Wijnaldum had sent in a lofted pass to Mane on the left side of the box. Mane controlled the ball with his right thigh, and as the ball landed near his left foot, Mane hesitated to take a touch because Kimmich had erased the small space Mane had to operate. In that moment of hesitation, Kimmich slid in and got the ball away.

Both tackles were in the box, and they were dangerous to attempt, but Kimmich was not only correct in his calculations, but he had set the conditions that made it easier for him to take that risk. By swiveling his hips or decreasing space to make an attacker think before making a move, Kimmich forced his opponents into traps of his own making.

Throughout the game, he constantly did small things that made it easier for him to win challenges, and funnel Liverpool attackers in dead-ends.

Towards the end of the 11th minute, Henderson got the ball a shade over the halfway line, looked up, and sent in a long ball that found Salah racing between Süle and Kimmich. The ball hit Salah in stride, behind both defenders and right in front of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Salah stretched out his leg to touch the ball towards goal, but Neuer was able to save it comfortably.

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I’ve often joked that Henderson’s best qualities are looking very English and walking around with his chest out, but against Bayern, he was tremendous. He covered the whole field, bailed out his teammates when they made mistakes, and won the ball back to kickstart Liverpool attacks many times.

Henderson was impressive throughout the game, and I was pleasantly surprised and awed by his long ball to Salah. So while I will give Henderson reprieve for a few weeks because of the quality of that ball, I don’t think it’s too farfetched to say that Salah is just an off-brand Carlos Vela.

I always like seeing the players’ pregame rituals. It’s fun to see what things people do to instill some order in our chaotic reality. Or at least, to calm their nerves and make themselves comfortable within that chaos. Soccer is nerve-wrecking, even before the ball is kicked. There’s an excitement and nervousness leading up to the game, an anxiety that could potentially overwhelm a player and cause them to have a terrible game.

Most people who play the game, no matter how good they are, have small rituals that they perform in order to prepare themselves for 90 minutes of pushing their mental and physical capabilities. Some of the rituals are elaborate, like Tim Howard’s, and others are as simple as players hopping on one leg while entering the field.

Prayer before games is fascinating to me because of the humility involved in it. Before the game, Salah stood near the center circle and prayed with his hands before his face, as he usually does, then wiped his face with his hands afterwards. While standing in his goal, Alisson had his eyes closed, with the index fingers on both hands pointing to the sky as he prayed. Prayer is an assertion by those who perform it, that there are other powers, greater powers, at work. Or at least present. When the stage was set for human and bodily excellence, Salah and Alisson, each in his own way towards his own faith, chose to appeal to something beyond themselves and their teammates.