Despite Kim Min-jae, a “Korean iron pillar,” playing 86 minutes and once again showing his best condition this season, his team, Germany’s most prestigious Bayern Munich, lost in vain due to a misjudgment by world-class goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Munich finally ended its record of 41 consecutive unbeaten matches in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Munich, led by Belgian coach Bang Sang Kompany, knelt 0-1 against Aston Villa, which made a splash last season by ranking fourth in a surprise English Premier League match in the second leg of the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League ‘League Phase’ at Birmingham Villa Park on the 3rd (Korea time).
Aston Villa have maintained good performance this season and are threatening their strong teams, but Munich is analyzed to be one-up in terms of power. He blocked Munich’s offensive led by Harry Kane with strict defense and laughed as special Joker Hon Duran fired a shot at the end of the game.
The result is Munich’s first loss since the opening of this season.
Munich, which leads the German Bundesliga with four wins and one draw, won 4-0 in the first round of the German Football Association (DFB) Pokal and was on a roll by defeating Croatia’s prestigious Dynamo Zagreb 9-2 in its first Champions League match last month.
However, as the strikers remained silent, with the main gun Harry Kane struggling, he was sunk by Aston Villa, who took the best stage in 41 years since the 1982-1983 season, and became a victim of an unexpected incident.
In addition, Munich lost 0-3 to PSG led by current Aston Villa coach Unai Emery during the group stage of the 2017-2018 season and has been undefeated in 41 games throughout the group stage and the reorganized league phase this season. Coincidentally, Aston Villa, led by Emery, put the brakes on Munich’s 41-game unbeaten streak.
Aston Villa were lagging far behind in most matches, but won after displaying concentration. Trailing 30 percent to 70 percent in ball possession, the team was inferior in the number of shots fired (5-17) and shots fired (2-7), but Duran scored the finishing goal in the 34th minute to secure its second consecutive win.
As a result of this day, the positions of the two teams within the ranking table have also changed significantly.
Since this season, the Champions League will divide 36 teams that made it to the finals into four ports instead of the group league format as before, and determine the teams that advance to the tournament by winning eight teams randomly drawn with two teams per port. Since the tournament will be played directly from 1st to 8th and the playoff from 9th to 24th, it is important to build wins from the beginning not to play additional games.
This is especially true for teams like Munich who participate in multiple competitions with the goal of winning. It is best not to go to the playoffs. However, due to the defeat against Aston Villa, the ranking fell to the middle, even though it was early in the league phase.
Munich will now be ranked 15th out of the 36 clubs. Along with Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Brest (France), Benfica (Portugal), Liverpool (England), and Juventus (Italy), Aston Villa have won their first two consecutive games. They are ranked sixth in goal difference.
Kim Min-jae, who continued to start as a center back along with Dayo Upamecano, left the ground in the 41st minute of the second half when he was behind 0-1 and needed to score.
Kim Min-jae, who is said to have recovered his performance when he was recently selected as the best defender in Serie A (Italy), showed stable defense without giving up a run in his position.
At the moment when Munich tried to allow a counterattack by stealing the ball several times by Aston Villa while overwhelming the ball possession, Kim Min-jae, a fast-footed defender, caught up with the opponent’s offense and turned the attack to nothing.
On the day, Aston Villa played in a 4-4-2 formation. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez wore gloves, while Luca Digne, Pau Torres, Diego Carlos and Ezri Konsa formed the defense. The midfield was guarded by Yuri Tillemance and Amadou Onana. The sides were taken by Jaden Pilozin and Jacob Ramsey. Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers came out to the front line to score. 안전놀이터
Munich came out as a 4-2-3-1 model. Along with Neuer, Alfonso Davis, Kim Min-jae, Upamecano and Jojua Kimihi built the defense. Aleksandar Pavlovic and Konrad Raimer protected the defense at the third line. Serge Gnabry, Michael Olise and Kingsley Comang were on the second line. Kane was on the front line.
Munich took the lead in the game, leading 17-5 in the number of shots, and pushed the home team all the time, but they lacked goal-scoring ability, and crucially, it was regrettable that Neuer did not keep the goal and advanced considerably in Duran’s goal scene.
In the 25th minute of the second half of the day, Colombia’s national striker Duran, who was replaced by Watkins, was competing with Upamecano during the counterattack, but Munich was frustrated by Argentina’s national gatekeeper Roberto Martinez, the winner of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Goalkeeper Award. Martinez made Munich cry by hitting Kane’s sharp shot just before the end.
Immediately after the match against Aston Villa, Kim scored 6.9 points in the soccer statistics media Footmob. This is the third highest score in his team following Davis with 8.0 points and Kimihi with 7.1 points.
While Champions League phase games were held at nine European stadiums on the same day, French club Lille also made an extraordinary win over Real Madrid (Spain), the winner of the last tournament, at home.
Real Madrid, led by Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, lost 0-1 in the 2024-2025 Champions League phase away game at the Lille Pierre-Maurua Stadium in France after failing to recover the first penalty goal given to opponent striker Jonathan David in the extra time of the first half.
Real’s unbeaten record was broken recently by playing 36 official games.
Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid’s rival in the same hometown, is also Benfica
