Bayern Munich's Football Club - Tuchel criticizes defensive player Kim: "Greedy and careless"
In the initial semi-final encounter between FC Bayern and Real Madrid, no winner emerged, but someone clearly lost. Minjae Kim was the one to blame for both of Vinicius Junior's Real goals in the 2-2 draw in the prestigious Champions League duel between the German and Spanish football titans. "He was way too greedy, twice," said coach Thomas Tuchel, admonishing the South Korean defender.
The absence of Matthijs de Ligt, who watched the action unfold at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening outside the stadium in civilian garb, led to a disastrous outcome. The 27-year-old Kim was substituted in for de Ligt in the heart of defense. Kim allowed himself to be caught off guard when Vinicius and Toni Kroos put one past Bayern at 0:1. "He shouldn't have made that counter-attack there. He was outrunning Kroos' pass, which is just too easy," Tuchel said.
"He's trying for too much in actions."
When Vinicius snagged the 2:2 goal late in the game, Kim made another error with a rash foul on Rodrygo, awarding Real a penalty. "With the second mistake, he no longer had to defend so aggressively in the first place," criticized Tuchel. "He's trying for too much in the actions, and Real's top quality cost us."
Bayern recruited Kim from SSC Napoli the previous summer for a colossal transfer sum of nearly €50 million. In Napoli's championship season, he was lauded as Italy's finest defender and dubbed a "defensive monster." He has yet to live up to those labels after transferring to Bayern.
"He needs to get over it, these things happen - and move on," said Tuchel on Wednesday evening. "We've already talked to him." Neuer, the national goalkeeper, provided further details on their post-match analysis with Kim in the locker room. "Mistakes happen in soccer; it's a part of the game. But we made amends with him," Neuer added. However, Tuchel will be expecting to see de Ligt in top form for the return leg in Madrid next week and partnering up with Eric Dier on the Bernabeu pitch.
Real Madrid squadBayern squadInfo on the semi-finalsSeason statisticsBundesliga tableBundesliga fixture listInfo on the new Champions League format from 2024/25Champions League fixture list
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Source: www.stern.de
