Lennart Karl made history against Club Brugge, becoming Bayern Munich’s youngest-ever Champions League goalscorer. (Photo by Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Images)
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Forty-four goals and counting. Bayern Munich’s incredible start to the season continues. On Wednesday in the Champions League, Club Brugge was the latest victim. In front of 75,000 fans, Lennart Karl (5’), Harry Kane (14’), Luis Díaz (33’), and Nicolas Jackson (79’) scored to secure Bayern’s 4-0 win.
The result marked Bayern’s 12th win across all competitions. During that run, Bayern has now averaged 3.66 goals per game. It wasn’t just against minor opposition either. The run of games also included a 6-0 win over Leipzig, a 3-1 win over Chelsea, and a 2-1 win over rivals Borussia Dortmund.
“We played really well,” Bayern Munich sporting director Christoph Freund said after the game. That might be perhaps an understatement. At no point was there any doubt that Bayern was going to win the game.
Indeed, Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany even had the luxury to start 17-year-old super talent Karl. The teenager then promptly scored his first goal in the Champions League five minutes into the game. At 17 years and eight months, Karl has now become the youngest player to score for Bayern in Champions League history.
Not surprisingly, Karl was the main topic after the match. But Kompany was quick in trying to cool down any hype surrounding the 17-year-old. “It is your job to hype him up and make him big because he is a young German talent,” Kompany said.
The Bayern boss then went on to emphasize that his job was to develop the player. “My opinion on him won’t change whether he has a bad game or a bad game,” Kompany added. That fits. One of the main reasons why Bayern moved fast to extend Kompany’s contract was his ability to keep things measured at a club that, in recent years, has swung back and forth between high highs and low lows.
Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany congratulated Lennart Karl after he scored his first ever UCL goal (Photo by ALEXANDRA BEIER/AFP via Getty Images)
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It also helps that the club has been in spectacular form. As mentioned, Bayern’s run to kick off the season has been nothing short of spectacular. Another win, and the Rekordmeister could equalize a top-five league starting record set by AC Milan during the 1992/93 season.
Back then, Milan won the first 13 games, scoring 45 goals and conceding just 13. Bayern now has 12 wins and 44 goals while conceding just nine. A win against Gladbach on the weekend would equalize the record, and by beating Köln in the Pokal next week, Bayern could set a new record.
More importantly, when looking at both the Bundesliga and Champions League tables, Bayern is in a great place as well. Domestically, Bayern is five points ahead of second-placed Leipzig. In the Champions League, the club is one of five clubs to have won the first three games.
Those clubs are PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Arsenal, and Real Madrid. Two of those teams, PSG and Arsenal, are Bayern’s next opponents.
“We knew we couldn’t drop points today because we have PSG and Arsenal coming up,” Kompany said after the game. “You have to get the points you can get. But I don’t think the top eight will be decisive in which team wins the Champions League. Last year with PSG showed that. I think this year, too, it won’t be a really important factor. The most important thing is to advance to the knockouts. We made a good step today.”
That’s certainly true. At the moment, Bayern is flying. But the real tests are just around the corner. Indeed, against PSG and Arsenal, Bayern can show that they are now part of the absolute elite. The current form indicates that they are, but the truth is always on the pitch.