Bayern Munich: Takeaways from 0-0 away draw against Bayer Leverkusen | OneFootball

Following a difficult 2-1 victory in Scotland over Celtic in the Champions League, just three days earlier, Bayern Munich resumed action in the Bundesliga on Saturday with a trip to the BayArena to take on reigning Bundesliga Champions Bayer Leverkusen.

Surprisingly, after a quiet start, Leverkusen would go on to dominate the game with Bayern at times just managing to survive. Before matchday 22, such an occurrence had never been witnessed under coach Vincent Kompany’s tenure in any competition regardless of the opposition. Whilst fans will never want to see such a disappointing performance from the Rekordmeister, in the end, the draw preserved Die Roten’s eight-point lead at the top of the table after matchday 22. Let us look at some seemingly bizarre takeaways from Bayern’s shocking but effective effort in Leverkusen.

Domination from Leverkusen

Although Bayern enjoyed a 56%-44% advantage in ball possession during the first half, that would be the only thing the Bavarian side would have enjoyed from Saturday’s encounter with Leverkusen apart from escaping with a share of the points.

Despite having the edge in possession during the first half, Bayern never looked like scoring. On the other hand, Leverkusen were dictating the tempo of the game both in and out of possession. The hosts managed to outshoot the visitors 6-0 in terms of total shots during the opening 45 minutes. Inside the opening 25 minutes, Leverkusen were unlucky to see two efforts on goal, both from close range, strike the crossbar. Based on how the game unfolded it would have been difficult to see Bayern making a comeback had either of those two efforts been converted.

In the second half, the side from the North-Rhine region was in even greater ascendency. After the resumption from the half-time interval, Leverkusen enjoyed 69% ball possession with a further nine shots attempted compared to only two from Bayern.