The weakest link is the human factor, and in the case of Bayern Munich it is called Kim Min-jae, a 27-year-old South Korean center back who was Real Madrid’s best ally at the Allianz Arena. His benevolence and naivety were a blessing to the whites, who were practically dead and came back to life with the transfusion offered to them by the calamitous eastern defense.
It is difficult to understand that Bayern, a historically rocky team, which has had some of the best centre-backs in history, starting with its former president, the legendary Franz Beckenbauer, and continuing with Augenthaler, Hummels and Boateng, entrusts the lock of the defense to a footballer as mediocre and insubstantial as Kim Min-jae. As unusual as paying 50 million euros to sign him from Naples…
Forming that strange couple in the defensive axis with the Englishman Eric Dier, the South Korean was a drain, the black hole through which all of Bayern’s energy slipped, which was emptied in an electric start, 20 minutes of attack and a goal on the goal of Saint Andriy Lunin, converted into the reissue of Saint Iker Casillas.
The Bavarian team burned almost all of their ships in those 20 overwhelming minutes of harassment and demolition with up to eight scoring chances. He defended Madrid like a cat on its belly, as he already did at the Etihad against City, and once again came out of the siege alive. When Bayern took a breath, the white team was able to stretch its lines, pause, organize itself and scrutinize where Bayern was limping: exactly, in the center.
Kroos, that extraordinary 34-year-old pivot that Luis Enrique discarded in 2014 for Barça in preference to Rakitic, invented a slingshot pass behind the Bavarian defense. Exactly: in the center. Dier and Kim Min-jae were pictured in the photo. It took them an eternity to decipher the masterful assistance, another eternity to turn around and another to start running. And before they realized it, Vinícius had already gotten three meters ahead of them and was beating Manuel Neuer with a soft touch, sold in one-on-one. Courtesy of Kim
The night foreshadowed the usual story seen so many times, the one that Real Madrid always explains in the Champions League: dominance and opportunities of the rival, only to end up winning the game with the white team in a flash, a flash of genius. But this Tuesday the story was twisted in four minutes of madness, from 53 to 57, in which Sané and Kane, with a penalty, turned the score around.
“Our best moment was at the beginning of the second half, when they scored the two goals. “Bayern has given the best version and we haven’t,” admitted Carlo Ancelotti, stately.
But what Madrid has in the Champions League is an infallible mix of ambition, fortune and rage to be more competitive than its rival, to always end up saving its neck. “We always think that if we can’t win we don’t want to lose. These are Champions League games, we are used to it: when they think we are dead is when we are most in danger. It always works for us,” Rodrygo illustrated.
This is how, when he was able to concede the 3-1 header from Dier, saved by Lunin, the ineffable South Korean appeared to give life to Madrid. The duel was dying, minute 83, Vinícius assisted Rodrygo, who turned around and Kim Min-Jae couldn’t think of anything other than to tackle the Brazilian with both hands in front. Penalty. And 2-2.
Thanks to their central defender, Bayern left the Allianz with half a place for the Wembley final.
