When the duels in the round of 16 of the Champions League were drawn shortly before Christmas last year, there was a glitch.

The balls with the clubs' name tags went back into the top, the result was declared void.

After the teams were matched for the second time, prophetic protests erupted from some clubs.

So Real Madrid were not happy at all.

Benfica Lisbon, opponents after the first draw, seemed easier to the Spaniards than Paris Saint-Germain, who were drawn in the second round.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

  • Follow I follow

The prediction, at least, wasn't entirely untrue.

Real lost the first leg in Paris 0-1 on Tuesday and is about to be eliminated, which was not only due to the strong opponent, but also to their own performance.

FC Bayern, meanwhile, was happy after the draw was repeated.

Instead of Atlético Madrid, it should go against Salzburg.

From a sporting point of view, that seemed more pleasant, plus the fact that the Austrian neighbor is only 150 kilometers away via the A8.

Since Wednesday evening, however, the people of Munich have known that even shorter distances can be quite rocky.

In the first leg of the round of 16, Bayern only made it 1-1 thanks to a goal from Kingsley Coman in the last minute.

Substitute Junior Adamu (21st minute) scored the goal for Salzburg – and that served Munich well.

In the first half, the Austrian champions involved the German record champions in such an intense dispute that many a Bavarian had to think that the storm, which was only announced for Salzburg on Thursday morning, would sweep through the stadium in Wals-Siezenheim a few hours earlier .

"It was an important goal"

Unlike on Saturday, when Bayern Munich conceded four goals in the first half in the attacking vortex of VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, they survived Salzburg's attack relatively unscathed.

After the break, FC Bayern caught up and deservedly equalized.

It was logical that Coman scored.

The French developed on his left offensive position to become the best Munich player in the second half.

After a cross from Benjamin Pavard and an extension with a header from Thomas Müller, Coman was free and pushed in at the second post to equalize.

"It was an important goal.

I was broken, but you always have to keep going," said the scorer in Oliver Kahn style.

"That worked out well.

We wanted to win here, but a draw is better than a loss.

With our fans behind us, we have a lot of confidence in the second leg," said the Frenchman.

The second game is on March 8th in the Munich Arena.

However, nobody spoke about the double value of the away goal on Wednesday in Salzburg.

The rule was changed earlier this season.

Now all hits of the two duels are added.

If you have more, you get further.

But it's not that far yet.

At a late hour at the foot of the Eastern Alps, Bayern were initially busy processing the turbulent evening on which Salzburg had demanded quite a lot from them.

"It's not the desired result.

But hats off that we still bent the thing to a 1: 1," said Müller at DAZN.

Although he had "mixed feelings", after Bochum's 4-2 defeat he saw it as a "good step" in the right direction.

Coach Julian Nagelsmann also recognized this: "Everyone saw that we wanted to go extremely hard in the second half."

That will also be necessary on the further way in the Champions League if the Munich team wants to achieve their traditionally high goals on international terrain.

For the first time this season, they encountered fierce resistance in the premier class.

In the preliminary round there were six wins in six games against Benfica Lisbon, FC Barcelona and Dynamo Kiev with 22:3 goals.

In 2022 things are not going so smoothly.

"We still have work to do to keep up with Europe's elite," said Nagelsmann before the short nightly bus ride back to Munich.

Joshua Kimmich, who had to feel like he was in the eye of the hurricane in the middle of the game against very stormy Salzburg, sounded similarly critical.

"We mustn't think it's okay," he said.

“We need that determination in every game.

It is clear that we can.

We have to get it on the pitch for 90 minutes of every game.

We're not in a flow right now that we can do it alone.

Everyone has to understand that.” Whether everyone has understood will be seen in the second leg against Salzburg, but also against Greuther Fürth on Sunday in the Bundesliga.

Then 25,000 spectators can come into the arena, almost as many as in Salzburg.

The stadium there was packed with almost 30,000 fans.

"The atmosphere was great, that's how you imagine football.

It was fun, but we had to suffer more than we would have liked,” said Thomas Müller.

Was he still thinking about the repeated draw?

Atlético Madrid, the first drawn opponents, also played on Wednesday and lost 1-0 in the Spanish league at home to bottom-placed UD Levante.

Maybe that would have been more of a lucky draw.