CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PLAYER RATINGS | Atalanta 1-6 Bayern Munich – Bayern with one foot in the quarter-finals after a commanding win in Italy | OneFootball

Bayern Munich would be hoping they would not be the next Bundesliga scalp to be taken by Atalanta in the Champions League this season, as they travelled to Bergamo. 

This season, Atalanta have beaten both Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt, showing how, despite being the only Italian team in the round of 16, they are no walkover.

Unlike their league rivals, Bayern opened the scoring early on when Atalanta failed to properly mark a corner. A short pass to Serge Gnabry left him in plenty of space to square it to Josip Stanisic, who was equally open, to make it 1-0. 

Ten minutes later, Michael Olise made it 2-0 when he was allowed to cut inside and shoot from outside of the box, to end an eight-game goal drought. Three minutes later, Olise turned provider when he assisted Gnabry to make it 3-0 and more or less, if we are being honest, end the tie. 

Just after the break, the Bundesliga side continued their enjoyable evening as Nicolas Jackson made it 4-0, following a counter which started from an Atalanta chance. 

In a similar scenario to his first goal, Olise made it 5-0 with his second of the night, with another effort where he cuts inside and curls the ball into the far corner. Substitute Jamal Musiala then made it 6-0. Then right at the end, Mario Pasalic scored a consolation goal to make it 6-1.

A dominant performance from Vincent Kompany’s side on both the attacking and defensive ends. At the back, they limited the hosts to only two shots on target in the whole game, while they did end up spending most of the game in the Atalanta final third.   

Olise and Joshua Kimmich will both miss the next game through suspension for Bayern, but that won’t matter, not only because they are basically in the quarter-finals, but it also means that the pair will be back for the next round against either Manchester City or Real Madrid. A performance like this, against an Atalanta side that has caused several teams problems, will again show why Bayern should be considered one of the favourites for the competition. 

Considering the performance of Bayern, it also begs the question, what the hell were Dortmund doing in the previous round that they fumbled their lead so badly? 

Bayern Munich:

Jonas Urbig (5), Konrad Laimer (5), Jonathan Tah (6), Dayot Upamecano (6), Josip Stanisic (5), Joshua Kimmich (6), Aleksander Pavlovic (6), Michael Olise (8), Serge Gnabry (7), Luis Diaz (7), Nicolas Jackson (7)

Others: Alphonso Davies (6), Jamal Musiala (6), Leon Goretzka (5), Tom Bischof (5), Raphaël Guerreiro (-)

GGFN Man of the Match: Michael Olise (8)

A commanding performance from the Frenchman, two goals and an assist. Olise also created six chances and completed 86% of his passes (via FotMob). The performance of the 24-year-old showed how deadly Bayern can be, as, despite the absence of Harry Kane, they can still rely on the likes of Olise and Luis Diaz to carry the mantle of the attack. 

GGFN | Jack Meenan