Even at the close of over 98 absorbing minutes, there was enough energy in their (unfamiliarly) green-clad legs to make a beeline in the same direction. Thomas Tuchel and a few of his players, led by Thomas Müller and Sven Ulreich, made plain their unhappiness to referee Daniel Schlager and his team – mainly at the penalty given to Leverkusen for Alphonso Davies’ challenge on Jonas Hofmann late on and, perhaps, the even later ruling out of a potential Dayot Upamecano winner, with the clear offside not stopping some of those on the Bayern Munich bench pointing towards the VAR screen.
Whether you thought they had a point or not they, and most of the fans inside the Allianz Arena, with boos ringing out at the whistle, were in the minority. This laying down of an early-season gauntlet, not just in terms of result but in its manner, was a timely shot in the arm for the Bundesliga. There were moments when Bayern looked like Bayern, moved like Bayern. Yet what we ended up with was far less clear-cut, replete with possibility.
