What the papers say: Impressive display in enthralling match

‘That’s how they are’ is the headline for the match report in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the article continues: “And Bayern win in the end: Lewandowski made it 2-1 in added time against an impressive Leverkusen side.”

The Werkself won particular recognition for the performance in the first half. "Bayer 04 approached this game with an energy and precision that no other team has shown against Bayern Munich and coach Hansi Flick," praised the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. "The Werkself restricted the record champions to 35 per cent possession. The lead made the relative strengths even clearer."

Schick's "brilliant cracker of a volley" – Bayern fortunate

The goal is described as follows in the BILD: “Leverkusen took a quick corner on the right. Amiri sent in a long cross to the unmarked Schick who thumped the ball into the back of the champions’ net with a brilliant cracker of a volley from fourteen yards out. 1-0 to Leverkusen. That again demonstrated the new Werkself strength at set pieces.”

The Welt am Sonntag takes a look at the stats: “It was Leverkusen's ninth goal from a corner this season." The newspaper also declares: "The Munich side were fortunate on 28 minutes when a goal from Schick was ruled out due to an offside decision."

"An enthralling match"

RP Online saw the half-time score of 1-1 as flattering for Bayern and not just because of that. "The Flick team only had the better of the game in the 15 minutes before half-time," said the match report. "Yet the equaliser at 1-1 from world footballer of the year Robert Lewandowski had not really been on the cards (43')."

"The equaliser gave Bayern a boost," was the view of the EXPRESS, "the visitors only posed a threat after half-time."

In contrast, the WAZ declares: "Bayern were very strong at the start of the second half but Leverkusen quickly recovered and it developed into an enthralling match that could have gone either way at any time." The final sentence of the match report may well sound rather bitter for all Werkself supporters: "But then the world footballer of the year struck again."