Suddenly the water bottle hits the ground hard. Leroy Sané threw them. But why? The winger scored a nice goal for FC Bayern against FC Barcelona in the Champions League. Well, his demands have grown significantly after a long valley.
Leroy Sané just didn't want any misunderstandings to arise. His angry drinking bottle throw was not an expression of anger at his substitution, Mathys Tel came for him. Any word in this direction would have fueled the unwelcome discussion about rotation and mood problems at Bayern. So, no such anger. Rather, he was annoyed by his own performance in the 2-0 home win against FC Barcelona on Tuesday evening. And in fact, the winger was not as present in the Champions League duel against the expensive Catalan giants as in previous games.
However, Sané had a moment when his world class, which had been certified a thousand times over, flashed. Jamal Musiala played it free after 54 minutes, Sané took the ball with him, sprinted through the middle of the Catalan defence, passed all opponents and pushed the ball very sensitively into the far corner. Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen had no chance. Munich had turned the duel in a few moments. Defender Lucas Hernández had recently made it 1-0 with a header. However, the hosts had not been the better team up to this point.
It was thanks to Robert Lewandowski of all people that they didn't have to chase a deficit. The striker, who had done everything to leave the Bavarian capital in spring/summer 2022, did not return as an ice-cold striker (that's how he was known), but as a man who acted surprisingly poorly. For Sané only a marginal issue. For his interlocutors too. The bottle (i.e. the drinking bottle) was the focus of events in the mixed zone. "Today it was okay, I scored a goal but didn't play a good game, so the bottle suffered."
After another mysterious month and open criticism from those responsible for the club in Munich, the winger has improved massively in recent weeks and deserves a permanent place in coach Julian Nagelsmann's massively pimped star ensemble. In view of the top competition for Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman, Thomas Müller and Musiala, this is quite a remarkable statement. One that serves as an important self-assurance. Because Sané has the publicly formulated claim to want to be a difference player. But it's also a strong statement towards the squad for Qatar. The World Cup will be played there in the run-up to Christmas. And the national coach, Hansi Flick, makes form and rhythm the core criteria of his nomination.
The 26-year-old is (still) far from the subject of the desert tournament. But one thing is clear: the performance curve is going up steeply. "Switch flipped?" He answered a question about his weak first half of 2022 and added: "I'm just concentrating on myself and my performance, if possible better than today." If anyone knows how quickly hype can turn into criticism, it's Sané.
