Match review: Bayern Munich defeat FIFA Club World Cup champions Chelsea | OneFootball

Bayern vs. Chelsea will always be remembered for the iconic “Finale Dahoam” - but that doesn't mean this matchup can't produce more memorable moments in thepresent and future.

On matchday 1 of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League campaign, Bayern Munich defeated FIFA Club World Cup champions Chelsea 3-1!

Many stories were told in this match: Neuer became Bayern's oldest Champions League player ever and also joined a 100 club: it's Neuer's 100th win in the Champions League in 151 games; only Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas and Thomas Müller have more. Also, Michael Olise showed his class against his youth club - here is a match review for the game:

Bayern was keen to dominate the game from the get go: a lot of ball possession, a lot of slow-paced build-up play and creative ideas in the final third were the main part of the first 20 minutes. In the 20th minute, a hard-drilled shot from Michael Olise into the middle of Chelsea's box found the knee of Blues defender Trevoh Chalobah, from which the ball went into the goal - 1-0 to the Bavarians.

Chelsea were only able to get some momentum going through counter attacks; Bayern decided to man-mark Chelsea's attackers, which meant that Jonathan Tah and Dayot Upamecano were often found in the middle of the park.

In this phase however, this positioning only helped Bayern in dominating the midfield - and Kompany's side were often able to interrupt Chelsea's counter attacks quickly. In the 27th minute, an interception from Bayern's Laimer led to Harry Kane getting fouled and receiving a penalty in the process, which he calmly finished into his bottom right corner - 2-0 to Bayern.

In contrast to the time after the first goal, Bayern were not concentrated on quick interceptions, which led to one of Chelsea's counter attacks being finished by Cole Palmer only 150 seconds after Kane's penalty - 2-1, which was also the score at half-time.

Bayern, who subbed in Min-jae Kim for Jonathan Tah because of a yellow card in the first half, came out motivated and continued their dominance. However, Josip Stanišić had to be subbed off for Sacha Boey due to an injury.

Konrad Laimer pushed forward quickly on the left in minute 57, causing chaos in the London defense. The Austrian then passed to Kane, who was running in from the left and shot from nine meters out - Robert Sánchez however, deflected the ball for a corner - Bayern's best chance in the second half up to this point.

In this phase, Bayern's pressure got too much for Chelsea - Kane mercilessly exploited a mistake in the build-up play from Chelsea and converted to make it 3-1 in the 63rd minute. From then on out, Bayern were the better team by far.

At this point, DAZN Germany commentator, expert and former Bayern and Chelsea player Michael Ballack called Bayern the more mature team - a testament to Kompany's work in the past 13 months.

Cole Palmer, clearly Chelsea's best player in this game next to goalkeeper Robert Sánchez, wanted to make the game more exciting by scoring a goal in the 89th minute - but it was taken back due to him being in an offside postion beforehand.

Nicolas Jackson, on loan at Bayern from Chelsea, came on for the last few minutes of the game, but he couldn't make an impact in such a short time. Final whistle: Bayern 3-1 Chelsea, a great start into this year's Champions League for the Bavarians.