Kompany unbothered by modest scoreline as Bayern beat Benfica

Vincent Kompany was pleased with the way Bayern Munich attacked at home to Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday, despite only winning 1-0.

The victory ended a run of back-to-back defeats for the German team in the competition, leaving them 17th in the league with six points from four matches.

“It’s important for us to win a game this way. In the past, we always scored three, four or five goals, but today we stayed calm,” Kompany told the official club website.

“We had 24 shots on goal and the opposition had one. Not every finish was dangerous, but we controlled the game. There are games in which the last pass just isn’t as precise as necessary.

“We know we can decide matches within the first five minutes if we’re on good form. That didn’t happen today. But in the end, it’s the Champions League. It was a good game and a good win.”

Midfielder Jamal Musiala scored the only goal of the game in the 67th minute, turning home Harry Kane’s knockdown after Leroy Sane had played the ball across the box.

113 – Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae completed all 113 of his passes against Benfica, which is the most passes a player has ever made on record (from 2003-04) in a UEFA Champions League match whilst maintaining a 100% pass completion rate. Perfect. pic.twitter.com/EdeRYcvXfL

— OptaJoon (@OptaJoon) November 7, 2024

Sane is yet to start a game in any competition for Bayern this season, coming on in the 56th minute on Wednesday, but his contribution was not lost on Kompany.

“Obviously, I’m really happy to have the quality of Leroy Sane and Michael Olise in the same position – not to forget Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry. You can say Leroy turned this game around today,” he said.

The goalscorer Musiala, meanwhile, was pleased after scoring his fifth goal in all competitions for the club this season.

“We had good moments, but the opposition played and defended well. Of course, there are still things we can improve, but it’s important to have won the three points,” he said.

“I don’t know what’s going on with me scoring headers at the moment. The ball dropped nicely for me a few times and I just keep trying to get into good positions I can score easy goals from.

“We all knew we had to win tonight and we did a good job. We had a tough time settling into the game, but we can’t win by four or five goals every time. Sometimes a 1-0 win has to be enough.”