Bayern Munich are legit Champions League title contenders: Don’t be fooled by a misleading Bundesliga record

Bayern Munich may have given the rest of Germany a league head start with a mediocre start to the season, but make no mistake, they are one of the best teams in the world. Until the last eight matches of the Champions League, after beating PSG 3-0 on aggregate, Julian Nagelsmann is pressing the right buttons despite his side being riddled with injuries.

The loss of Manuel Neuer, the now recovering Sadio Mane, Lucas Hernandez and Nussar Mazzarui meant the Bavarians had to struggle this season, but thanks to a resurgent Erik Maxime Choupo-Moting, the team shone when needed. Before the start of the season the question was how the team would replace Robert Lewandowski, they bought Mane for the role and then once he was back in shape they lost him due to injury. Choupo-Moting came to the rescue, leading with 17 goals and four assists in all competitions.

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Bayern Munich have what it takes to win the Champions League. An attack that is convenient to switch to secondary options, and also built around the budding star Jamal Musiala.

PSG weren’t at their best on Wednesday, but that’s due to how Bayern held them back. By pushing Kylian Mabppe and Lionel Messi down the middle, Bayern blocked midfield to keep the match from going full steam ahead, and everything that did get through to Jann Sommer was handled admirably.

Sommer is a good microcosm of what Bayern were doing in the January transfer window, identifying their weaknesses and rebooting to make sure they have the best chance of winning the Champions League title, their first since 2020 over PSG. Joao Cancelo, who was also added in January, only needed three minutes to help Serge Gnabry score an insurance goal in the 89th minute.

Looking at the Bundesliga standings, where they share 49 points with Borussia Dortmund after 23 matches, it seems that this is a weaker side of Bayern than usual. Even Union Berlin with 44 points and RB Leipzig and Freiburg with 42 points each remain interested. But Bayern inevitably runs away with things.

With 66 goals and conceding just 22 in the league, Bayern have a goal difference that is more than double that of the next best team, which is Borussia Dortmund with 19. With just 23 games under their belt, they have there is plenty of time for things. to stabilize even while keeping an eye on the deep run of the Champions League.

Before this match, Nagelsmann talked about the big game. “It’s important to not just focus on defense and sit back and think about how many great players PSG have,” he said. “Instead, we want to send our great players onto the pitch in their best positions so they can be dangerous and attack the net.” But in fact, the Bayern coach was also pragmatic. He started Josip Stanisic from right-back to keep Mbappe at bay, using one of the varied options his team gives him to limit PSG to just 10 shots. Nagelsmann made sure that his defense could take on PSG while maintaining his teams’ attacking abilities.

As we get closer to the Champions League final, if Nagelsmann can keep making calls like this, he will go from being a manager in the hot seat during Bayern’s struggles to making a statement about himself as one of the top managers in the world.