Bayern Munich show rare glimpse of vulnerability ahead of Red Bull Salzburg Champions League last-16 tie

If Red Bull Salzburg need inspiration ahead of their Champions League last-16 tie against Bayern Munich, they need only look 400-odd miles north-east across the German border to Bochum.

A former coal mining hub at the heart of the Ruhr region which struggled through the era of deindustrialisation, Bochum has survived more than its fair share of adversity over the years. As in life, so in football: VfL Bochum are a source of fierce local pride, but, having bounced between the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga since the early nineties, they had spent 11 years in the German second division before being promoted as champions last season.

As such, when Bayern arrived at the Ruhrstadion on Saturday, even the most optimistic Bochumers must have found themselves contemplating the idea of defeat. Julian Nagelsmann’s side had won 7-0 in the reverse fixture at the Allianz Arena in September, a chastening experience for the pre-season relegation favourites.

Instead, Bochum caused an upset which sporting director Sebastian Schindzielorz called “a new game of the century”. While the match seemed to be following the expected pattern when Robert Lewandowski bundled over the line early on, a well-taken goal from Christopher Antwi-Adjei, a penalty scored by Jurgen Locadia and a couple of absolute screamers from Cristian Gamboa and Gerrit Holtmann gave the hosts a 4-1 lead before the half-time whistle had even gone.

Despite threatening a late fightback when Lewandowski scored another late on, it proved to be a consolation for the reigning champions. Bochum held out for only their second win against Bayern since the turn of the millennium and their first since 2004.

Speaking after the match, Nagelsmann was scathing about his side’s performance. “Congratulations to Bochum, they played well, it was a deserved win,” he said. “It was a rubbish game, we shouldn’t have allowed that to happen to us.”

Bochum’s goals came from a mix of probing crosses from the flanks and clever overlaps out wide, bypassing Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard, while Dayot Upamecano and Niklas Sule were Bayern’s soft underbelly at centre-back.

“We played very poorly in the first half,” Nagelsmann went on. “Our plan didn’t work. We should have reacted earlier, as we did in the second half. After their two wonder goals it was difficult, goals aren’t scored like that every day, but in the first half we were just too passive.”

It was an afternoon of harsh truths for Bayern, with Joshua Kimmich calling it “our worst performance of the season” after a difficult game in midfield alongside Thomas Muller. “If this kind of thing happens once a season, that’s fine,” he added. “But it’s happening to us more often than that at the moment. We have to be careful.”

Red Bull Salzburg are certainly not underdogs in the same way as Bochum. Funded by the energy drinks giant which, much as it has done with sister club RB Leipzig in Germany, has made itself enormously unpopular by aggressively rebranding the club before driving it on to unprecedented success, they have become a byword for corporate football.

Nonetheless, despite being runaway leaders in the Austrian Bundesliga, they will also have to cause an upset to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals. Like Bochum, they too have chastening memories of their last meeting with Bayern having lost 3-1 and 6-2 to the Bavarians at the group stage last season.

While Bayern are still six points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and have a perfect record in Europe this term, they are a work in progress under Nagelsmann. They certainly do not have the invincible sheen that they had under Hansi Flick when they won the Champions League two seasons ago, with a 2-1 defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach in January meaning they have already lost two games this calendar year.

While most teams wouldn’t lose sleep over two defeats in a little over a month, Bayern are not like most teams. They have now lost four league games this term, as many as they did across the entirety of last season, and have shown a rare glimpse of vulnerability at a crucial point in Nagelsmann’s debut campaign at the club.

Throw in a shock 5-0 loss to Gladbach in the DFB-Pokal back in October, their biggest defeat since 1978, and it becomes apparent why players like Kimmich are sounding a note of caution. It’s a mark of Bayern’s domestic dominance – as well as the fickle form of nearest challengers Borussia Dortmund – that isolated defeats can be a cause for such soul-searching, but the reality is that, after nine league titles in a row, they are not used to feeling so fallible.

With the team in transition under Nagelsmann there will be leeway for error and experimentation this term. Bayern could still regain the juggernaut momentum which saw them win nine of their first 10 games in all competitions at the start of the season, having shown a knack in previous seasons of hitting top form at just the right time.

That said, while it would still be a huge surprise if they didn’t progress against Red Bull Salzburg over two legs, their season is delicately balanced at the moment. Looking forward to the latter stages of the Champions League, with Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City already laying down markers in the round of 16, Nagelsmann has some hard thinking to do if Bayern are to dominate Europe once again.

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