Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica: Musiala gets hosts' UCL campaign back on track
A second-half goal from Jamal Musiala gave Bayern Munich a much-needed Champions League victory over Benfica.
Jamal Musiala scored a header in the second half to give Bayern Munich a crucial 1-0 home victory over Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Germany international Musiala scored with a bullet header from close range in the 67th minute with Bayern dominating and missing several chances before eventually breaking the deadlock.
Musiala’s chance was set up when Harry Kane headed Leroy Sane’s cross back across the face of goal.
The result was much needed to get Bayern’s campaign back on track, with the win seeing them bounce back from suffering two consecutive defeats in the competition – against Aston Villa and Barcelona – for the first time since 2017.
A win lifted the Germans to six points from four matches and into 17th place with Benfica, who were toothless in attack, also on six points in 19th place.
Europe's top club competition has switched from a group stage to a league phase this season, where 36 teams play eight matches each. The top eight in the table progress directly to the next round, while the next 16 teams enter a two-legged playoff.
Bayern have a crunch clash against Paris Saint-Germain next in the competition on November 26.
Data Debrief: Unlucky 13 for Benfica
Benfica have now played 13 major European matches against Bayern and have never tasted victory, collecting only three draws and suffering 10 defeats.
That trend rarely showed signs of ending in this match, with Benfica not threatening. The visitors failed to register a shot on target for the first time in 45 Champions League matches. The last time they did not trouble the goalkeeper in this competition was in October 2017 against Manchester United. Bayern, by comparison, racked up 10 attempts on target.
Benfica also only had four touches in the opposition box, their lowest tally on record since Opta started recording that data in the Champions League in 2007-08, with Bayern tallying 51.
As for Kane, the assist means he has now been directly involved in 80 goals across all competitions (61 goals, 19 assists) since the start of last season. That is 16 more than any other player across Europe’s biggest five leagues in this period.