Bayern Munich demolished Club Brugge in a match that quickly got to smooth sailing for the unstoppable Bavarians. 17-year-old Lennart Karl got the scoring going in under five minutes and Harry Kane doubled the advantage by the 15th\u2026and the rout was on.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s who stood out from the result.<\/p>\n
Jersey Swap: Nordin Jackers<\/p>\n
Thirteen shots on target and \u201conly\u201d four goals. That\u2019s a solid day at the office for the Club Brugge goalkeeper in the midst of a team shellacking. No doubt about it \u2014 Brugge was overpowered and overrun from the off. Jackers was called to action time and time again and the 28-year-old needed to be smart with his decisions to deny Bayern\u2019s big guns in their 1-v-1 opportunities. He wasn\u2019t alone in keeping the scoresheet cleaner than it could have been as his defense made a clearance or two off the line.<\/p>\n
All in all it was just that kind of day. The Belgian side had their forays when on the ball, and actually notched an impressive 94% pass accuracy. But they were really never close to getting into the game.<\/p>\n
Brugge was not completely helpless and took their shots down the field to try to get anything going against the Bavarians. One occasion in the first half looked close to coming off as a Brugge attacker found his way 1-on-1 against the last man \u2014 but that man was Jonathan Tah, who stayed alert and nicked the ball away in an excellent piece of defending.<\/p>\n
Tah is fquickly growing into his role as a key starter in Kompany\u2019s XI despite only moving to the club this summer. This one rates as one of the Germany international\u2019s best matches.<\/p>\n
Fu\u00dfballgott: Konrad Laimer<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to go unconventional today. Both Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlovi\u0107 had excellent games in the Bayern pivot \u2014 key passes, chance creation, constantly being on the ball and influencing the game, and pin-point long balls from both of them. What Laimer did was notch two assists while being all over the field, as the converted midfielder-turned-right-back-turned-left-back. Julian Nagelsmann\u2019s pressing machine has become Vincent Kompany\u2019s key man. He\u2019s not quite in the engine room that is the Bayern midfield, at least not nominally, but mein Gott, he\u2019s everywhere.<\/p>\n
Take a bow, kid! The youngster got the official UEFA MOTM honors on his Champions League XI debut and showed from the opening whistle that he was not overawed by the occasion. If there\u2019s one thing that defines Karl\u2019s game, as we\u2019ve seen all preseason, it\u2019s moxie. Karl is not shy at all to try something, and so when he received central from Jonathan Tah in the fifth minute, he passed up all his passing options to jink and juke through the congested central areas of the Club Brugge defense before ripping one from range. Ridiculously audacious \u2014 and it went in!<\/p>\n
That self-belief will serve him well and it should definitely earn him more and more chances to play this season. Karl spent the rest of the game dancing all over Club Brugge, side-stepping, step-overing, step-overing again\u2026as well as showing some composure in retaining possession and spreading it around to his attacking teammates. Oh, and tracking back and making energetic defensive interventions.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a joy to watch and Bayern is lucky to be able to see a lot more of this soon.<\/p>\n
Meister of the Match: Luis D\u00edaz<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz was a force to be reckoned with today up and down the left flank. His scorcher of a goal in the 34th minute sealed the game \u2014 in case there were any doubts still by then \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t his first good opportunity to hit paydirt. But scoresheet aside, the Colombian winger was causing problems. On Bayern\u2019s fourth and final goal he showed that Harry Kane isn\u2019t the only Bayern attacker who can work magic from deep, launching the cross-field switch to unleash Konrad Laimer en route to Nicolas Jackson\u2019s clincher. D\u00edaz was unlucky not to have at least one assist from this one too.<\/p>\n
It was 81 minutes of relentless energy from Bayern\u2019s biggest summer signing, and Lucho seemed to only get stronger as the game wore on. He deservingly leads the way in our awards tonight.<\/p>\n